OBART  COLLEGE  BULLETINS 


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Published  by  Hobart  College,  Geneva,  N.  Y.  Issued  quarterly. 
Entered  October  28,  1902,  at  Geneva,  N.  Y.  , as  second-class 
matter,  under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894. 


HOBART  COLLEGE  BULLETINS 


Vol.I 


JULY,  1903 


No.  4 


JlroOTihoga  of  (Hmnmtmxmmt  m\h 
Soatallatton  of  flrratoot 
Jitohtarbaott 


Published  by  Hobart  College,  Geneva,  N.  Y.  Issued  quarterly. 
Entered  October  28,  1902,  at  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  as  second-class 
matter,  under  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894. 


$ As  03  Wob.  to  {(t 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  COMMENCEMENT 
AND  INSTALLATION  EXERCISES 


The  Exercises  of  Commencement  Week  were  inaugurated 
by  the  delivery  on  Sunday,  June  15th,  of  the  Sermon  before 
the  Religious  Societies  of  the  College,  by  the  Rev.  William 
Frederick  Faber,  of  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  and  the  Bacca- 
laureate Sermon  by  the  Rev.  Loring  W.  Batten,  Ph.D.,  of 
St.  Mark’s  Church,  New  York.  Both  sermons  were  preached 
in  Trinity  Church. 

The  Seventy-Eighth  Commencement  was  held  in  the 
Smith  Opera  House,  on  Wednesday,  June  17th,  and  together 
with  it  the  Installation  of  President  Stewardson.  On 
account  of  rain  the  procession  was  unable  to  gather  on  the 
College  Front,  and  was  formed  within  the  Opera  House 
Building. 

The  following  institutions  of  learning  were  represented  by 
delegates  : 

The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  by  Regent  T. 
Guilford  Smith,  C.E.,  LL.D.,  of  Buffalo. 

Alfred  University,  by  President  B.  C.  Davis,  Ph.D. 
Auburn  Theological  Seminary,  by  President  G.  B.  Stewart, 
D.  D. 

Columbia  University,  by  Dean  Edward  D.  Perry,  Ph.D. 
Cornell  University,  by  Professor  J.  E.  Creighton,  Ph.D. 
General  Theological  Seminary,  by  Professor  F.  T.  Rus- 
sell, D.D. 

Syracuse  University,  by  Professor  W.  P.  Coddington, 
D.D. 


4 


Trinity  College,  by  Rev.  John  Brainard,  D.D. 

Union  University,  by  Professor  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Jr., 
Ph.D. 

Yale  University,  by  C.  W.  Bardeen,  Esq.,  of  Syracuse, 
President  of  the  local  Yale  Alumni  Association. 

President  Stewardson,  the  Bishop  of  Western  New  York, 
the  Bishop-Coadjutor  of  Central  New  York,  the  Official 
Delegates  of  other  Colleges  and  Universities,  the  Faculty 
and  the  Trustees  took  seats  upon  the  stage,  while  the  Stu- 
dents and  Alumni  occupied  reserved  seats  in  the  orchestra. 

The  exercises  were  opened  by  Prayer  by  the  Chaplain  of 
the  College,  after  which  the  Graduating  Orations  were 
announced  as  follows  : 

“ The  German  Patriotic  Poetry  of  the  Uprising  Against 
Napoleon/7  by  S.  Edwin  Boardman. 

“ College  Training/7  by  Harry  Sylvester  Simmons. 

“ Queen  Victoria,77  by  William  Norman  Irish. 

After  the  delivery  of  Mr.  Boardman 7s  oration,  Mr.  Sim- 
mons and  Mr.  Irish  having  been  excused  from  speaking,  the 
Installation  Address  on  behalf  of  the  Trustees  of  the  College 
was  delivered  by  James  Armstrong,  Esq.,  of  New  York. 

There  followed  an  Address  of  Welcome  on  behalf  of  the 
Faculty  of  the  College  by  Professor  Francis  Philip  Nash, 
LL.D.  Mr.  Fred  Grandy  Budlong,  1904,  then  welcomed 
President  Stewardson  in  the  name  of  the  Undergraduates. 
A Congratulatory  Address  on  behalf  of  the  Regents  of  the 
University  of  the  State  of  New  York  was  then  delivered  by 
Regent  T.  Guilford  Smith,  LL.D.,  of  Buffalo. 

At  the  conclusion  of  these  addresses,  President  Steward- 
son  responded,  formally  accepting  the  trust  reposed  in  him 
by  the  Trustees  of  the  College,  and  expressing  his  high 
appreciation  of  the  cordial  words  of  welcome  addressed  to 
him  by  their  representative,  by  the  Faculty  and  Under- 
graduates of  the  College,  and  by  the  Chancellor  and  Regents 
of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


5 


An  address  was  then  delivered  by  President  Isaac  Sharp- 
less, LL.D.,  of  Haverford  College,  on  “ The  Small  College 
and  its  Relation  to  the  University.’ ’ President  Langdon 
Cheves  Stewardson,  LL.D.,  then  pronounced  the  Inaugu- 
ral Oration  on  “ The  World  and  the  Ideal  in  the  Academic 
Education  of  Man,”  prefacing  it  by  a brief  Address  to  the 
Trustees. 

After  the  conclusion  of  President  Stewardson ’s  address, 
the  Prizes  and  Honorary  Degrees  were  announced,  and  the 
Baccalaureate  Degrees  conferred,  as  given  below.  The 
formal  exercises  of  the  day  were  then  concluded  by  the  pro- 
nouncing of  the  Benediction  by  the  Bishop  of  Western  New 
York. 

The  Commencement  Dinner  was  held  as  usual  at 
one  o’clock.  Especial  interest  was  lent  the  occasion  by  the 
speeches  on  behalf  of  various  institutions  which  were  repre- 
sented at  the  Installation.  Professor  Hale  extended  the  con- 
gratulations of  Union,  Dean  Perry  spoke  for  Columbia, 
Professor  Creighton  for  Cornell,  and  Mr.  Bardeen,  the 
official  delegate  of  Yale,  for  that  University.  President 
Sharpless  voiced  the  good  wishes  of  Haverford  College, 
and  also  referred  to  his  new  connection  with  Hobart,  of  which 
he  had  just  been  made  an  Honorary  Alumnus.  President 
Stewardson  expressed  his  thanks  for  the  welcome  extended 
to  him.  The  Class  of  1893,  which  was  enjoying  a reunion, 
was  also  well  represented  among  the  speakers  by  Mr. 
O.  G.  Chase,  of  Geneva. 


ADDRESSES  OF  WELCOME 


INSTALLATION  ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE 
TRUSTEES 

James  Armstrong,  Esq. 

Mr.  President : 

The  Board  of  Trustees  of  Hobart  College  has  accorded  to 
me  the  privilege  of  extending  to  you  its  welcome  to  the  office 
of  President,  to  which  you  have  been  unanimously  elected, 
and  of  giving  you  its  assurance  of  loyal  support  in  all  proper 
measures  intended  to  promote  the  objects  for  which  the  Col- 
lege was  founded. 

I need  hardly  say  to  you  that  the  office  carries  with  it  grave 
responsibilities.  While  ranking  as  one  of  the  small  colleges 
amongst  a multitude  of  them  scattered  over  the  country, 
Hobart  has  the  record  of  a long  and  honorable  career,  and 
her  Alumni  have  filled  with  great  credit  high  positions  in 
both  Church  and  State.  This  record  is  one  of  which  the 
Alumni  may  well  be  proud,  and  of  which  no  stranger  coming 
into  her  service  need  be  ashamed. 

We  must  not  be  content,  however,  to  rest  on  this  record, 
but  the  united  efforts  of  her  Trustees,  Faculty  and  Alumni 
should  be  to  extend  her  sphere  of  usefulness  by  preparing 
the  young  men  who  come  within  her  walls  to  be  better  men 
and  citizens  at  a time  when  such  are  so  greatly  needed. 

As  President  of  the  College  it  will  be  your  duty,  as  I know 
it  will  be  your  desire  and  effort,  to  seek  out  the  best  methods 
of  accomplishing  this  great  object,  and  to  present  them,  well 
considered,  for  the  action  of  the  Board.  You  must  be  the 
suggesting,  guiding  and  directing  force  in  the  administration 
of  the  affairs  of  the  College.  The  Board  of  Trustees  is  com- 
posed of  men  whose  time  and  strength  are  fully  occupied 
with  other  affairs  ; their  meetings  are  few  and  at  long  inter- 


7 


vals,  and  compressed  into  very  limited  time,  which  leaves 
comparatively  little  opportunity  for  the  discussion  and  con- 
sideration of  the  many  questions  that  come  before  them  for 
action. 

Therefore,  the  Board  must  look  to  you  to  give  your  best 
thought  and  judgment  to  the  matters  of  administration  which 
you  present  for  its  action,  and  to  formulate  such  plans  as  you 
may  deem  necessary  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the  College. 
The  business  of  education  has  become  a highly  technical  and 
complicated  one,  and  requires  the  services  of  technical  experts 
for  its  successful  accomplishment.  In  all  this  you  are 
entitled  to  receive,  and  I have  no  doubt  you  will  have,  the 
loyal  support  and  cooperation  of  the  Board,  the  Faculty  and 
the  Alumni. 

And  now  in  the  name  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  by  its 
authority,  I present  to  you  a copy  of  the  Charter  of  this  Col- 
lege with  its  Keys,  in  token  of  the  trust  reposed  in  you,  and 
in  the  full  confidence  that  you  will  maintain  and  promote  the 
objects  therein  set  forth,  with  fidelity  and  ability;  and  in  this 
endeavor  I cannot  doubt  that  you  will  have  God’s  guidance 
and  strength,  which  enables  us  to  build  better  than  we  know. 


ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE  FACULTY 

Professor  Francis  Philip  Nash,  LL.D. 

Mr.  President : 

The  Faculty  of  Hobart  College  has  laid  upon  me  the  pleas- 
ant and  honorable  duty  of  bidding  you  welcome  to  the  office 
of  President. 

The  Faculty,  which,  in  a sense,  is  the  most  permanent, 
and  certainly  the  most  immanent  body  connected  with  the 
College,  conducting,  as  it  does,  its  daily  life  and  handing 
down  its  traditions  kept  bright  and  serviceable  by  dailv  use — 


8 


the  Faculty  bids  me  welcome  you  and  express  in  the  strong- 
est terms  its  respect  and  friendly  regard  for  your  person. 

There  are  excellent  reasons,  Sir,  why  the  Faculty  should 
feel  as  it  does,  and  as  strongly  as  it  does.  The  college  to 
which  we  welcome  you  stands  today,  as  it  has  stood  in  the  past, 
for  honest  work,  truthful  speech  and  sober  but  earnest  pro- 
gressiveness. It  is  a college  where  shams  are  at  a discount 
and  the  motto  is  4 4 Be  that  which  thou  wouldst  seem.”  To 
such  a college,  if  I have  not  claimed  too  much  for  it,  who 
could  be  more  welcome  than  one  whose  past  career  shows  an 
unbroken  record  of  honest  labor,  honest  speech,  honest 
thinking  ? 

Our  Faculty,  Mr.  President, — I mean,  of  course,  my  col- 
leagues— are  a hard  worked  and  hard  working  body  of  men. 
They  welcome  you  to  no  bed  of  roses,  to  no  haven  of  rest, 
to  no  sailor’s  snug  harbor,  but  to  a field  of  useful  toil  and  to 
a sea  not  divinely  insured  against  an  occasional  bit  of  bad 
weather.  We  invite  you  to  share  our  labors  and  our  good 
and  bad  fortunes,  to  cheer  and  to  be  cheered,  to  guide  our 
work  and,  if  need  be,  to  set  right  whatever  may  be  amiss  in 
it ; and  with  faithful  work  we  have  heard  you  have  had  life- 
long and  most  intimate  acquaintance. 

The  Faculty  of  Hobart  College,  Sir,  has  yet  another  quality 
which  predisposes  it  to  give  you  the  welcome  of  sympathetic 
appreciation.  They  are  as  disinterested  a set  of  men  as  you 
will  easily  find  anywhere.  A self-seeking  man  would  have 
no  natural  place  among  them  ; but  whom,  I may  ask,  could 
they  find  better  fitted  to  stand  with  them  on  that  high  plane 
of  living  than  you,  whose  much  deliberated  acceptance  of  the 
office  to  which  our  honorable  Board  of  Trustees  had  called 
you  they  know  to  have  been  the  fruit  of  no  personal  ambition, 
but  most  strictly  an  answer  to  the  distinct  call  of  Duty  and 
of  God  ? Of  no  one  was  it  ever  more  truly  said  that  the  of- 
fice sought  the  man,  and  not  he  the  office. 


9 


I have,  I know,  spoken  long  enough  ; yet  I cannot  leave 
unnamed  another  thing  which  lends  fervor  to  our  welcome, 
even  though  it  lies  in  the  hopes  of  the  future  rather  than  in 
the  record  of  the  past.  The  ideal  relation  between  the  fac- 
ulty and  the  president,  especially  in  a small  college,  must  be 
based  upon  a profound  respect  for  each  other's  work,  a will- 
ingness to  make,  now  and  then,  some  little  professional 
sacrifice  (so  much  harder  to  make  than  personal  ones)  to  the 
general  interests  of  the  college,  a capacity  for  appreciating 
the  difficulties  and  perplexities  which  we  all  have  to  contend 
with — that  capacity  which  some  one  quaintly  describes  as  a 
faculty  for  appreciating  the  toughness  of  your  neighbor's 
beef-steak  ; in  short  a generous  feeling  of  solidarity  among 
colleagues  and  a readiness  to  merge  all  personal  aims,  whims 
and  vanities  in  a large  devotion  to  the  great  aims  of  such  an 
institution  as  this,  and  (in  our  own  particular  case)  in  a hearty 
love  for  our  dear  old  Hobart.  That  we  shall  find  all  these 
things  in  you,  Sir,  the  Faculty  of  Hobart  College  firmly 
believes  ; and,  standing  under  the  glowing  dawn  of  a future 
full  of  the  best  promise,  it  offers  you,  Mr.  President,  the 
most  heart-felt  welcome  to  a new  field  of  activity,  for  which 
it  feels  that  you  are  preeminently  fitted,  and  its  warmest 
wishes  for  your  welfare  and  for  your  success  in  that  field. 


UNDERGRADUATE  ADDRESS 

Mr.  Fred  Grandy  Budlong,  1904 

It  is  with  hearty  satisfaction  that  the  Undergraduates  of 
Hobart  College  welcome  a new  leader.  We  present  our- 
selves, Sir,  ready  to  strive  as  a unit  along  the  lines  which 
you  point  out.  We  come  bound  together  not  only  by  an 
honest  love  for  our  college,  but  by  strong  ties  of  friendship, 
which  make  us  feel  as  a body  the  good  or  ill  fortune  of  each 


10 


man.  Between  the  faculty  and  ourselves  there  exists  already 
a real  companionship  and  a true  understanding  possible  only 
in  a small  college,  and  we  trust  to  find  in  you  a close  friend 
as  well  as  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  guide.  We  would  be 
earnest,  active  and  high-minded.  We  are  trying  to  labor  for 
the  highest,  and  our  hopes  for  the  future  are  unbounded. 

Of  her  successes  in  competition  with  sister  colleges  Hobart 
makes  no  boast.  That  her  victories  in  athletics  have  been 
relatively  fewer  than  in  academic  lines  is  due  to  conditions 
beyond  the  undergraduates’  control ; and  we  look  eagerly 
forward  to  an  opportunity  for  as  thorough  work  in  athletics 
as  present  standards  seem  to  demand.  We  are  not  oblivious 
of  our  faults  and  short-comings.  We  come  anxious  to  cor- 
rect them  and  to  attain  under  your  guidance  to  higher  and 
nobler  ideals  as  college  men. 

Your  reputation  precedes  you  from  the  field  of  your  recent 
labors,  and  we  realize  that,  as  we  have  gained,  so  Lehigh 
University  has  lost,  one  whom  faculty  and  undergraduates 
knew  and  loved  as  a friend,  and  trusted  as  a counsellor.  We 
receive  you  from  them,  earnestly  desiring  to  be  to  you  all  that 
they  could  have  been.  Hobart  was  never  in  better  condition, 
and  for  her  we  feel  there  are  great  possibilities.  Henceforth 
we  look  to  you  with  full  trust  and  confidence,  and  to  you  we 
pledge  unswerving  loyalty.  May  your  administration  be  a 
very  long  and  a very  happy  one  ; may  you  find  in  faculty 
and  undergraduates  true  and  constant  supporters  ; may  we 
as  college  men  rise  to  the  highest  mental  and  moral  attain- 
ments, and  may  Hobart  achieve  a position  worthy  of  her 
past  and  of  your  efforts.  Sir,  in  the  name  of  the  Under- 
graduates of  Hobart  College,  I bid  you  welcome. 


CONGRATULATORY  ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF 
THE  REGENTS 


Regent  T.  Guilford  Smith,  LL.D. 

To  the  Trustees  and  Faculty  of  Hobart  College,  and  to 
you,  President  Stewardson,  I bring  the  cordial  greetings  of 
the  Chancellor  and  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  As  I have  been  adopted  by  Hobart  College 
as  one  of  its  alumni,  I am  particularly  gratified  in  having 
been  selected  by  the  Chancellor  for  this  pleasant  duty.  I 
can  assure  you  and  the  members  of  your  Faculty  that  Hobart 
College  has  a very  warm  place  in  the  hearts  of  all  the 
Regents  of  the  University.  The  very  fact  of  your  friendly 
relations  with  Columbia  University  is  an  additional  cause  of 
congratulation,  because  really  the  Regents  of  the  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York  owe  their  incorporation  more  to 
King’s  College,  the  predecessor  of  Columbia,  than,  perhaps, 
to  any  other  one  reason  that  I can  think  of.  In  1784,  when 
the  Regents  of  the  University  were  incorporated  by  the  Leg- 
islature of  the  State  of  New  York,  it  was  with  the  view  of 
protecting  from  confiscation  the  property  of  King’s  College 
and  to  make  it  a part  of  the  Educational  System  of  New 
York,  and  we  owe  to  Messrs.  L’Hommedieu  and  Duane,  as 
well  as  to  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  was  said  to  have 
inspired  them,  a debt  of  gratitude  for  what  they  did  at  that 
time,  and  even  now,  one  hundred  and  nineteen  years  after, 
we  have  not  forgotten  it.  Personally  I believe  in  the  future 
of  Hobart  College,  situated  as  it  is  in  most  unusually  attrac- 
tive academic  shades,  and  with  traditions  of  the  past  which 
cannot  fail  to  inspire  those  charged  with  its  affairs  in  the 
present. 

The  duties  of  a College  President  today  are  so  different 
from  those  of  the  past  that  one  is  required  now  to  be  more 
of  a man  of  affairs  than  formerly,  while  just  as  much  of  a 


12 


student  and  inspired  with  the  same  literary  and  scientific 
aims  ; you,  Mr.  President,  have  had  unusual  opportunities 
of  acquiring  the  necessary  experience  for  discharging  these 
important  duties,  and  I am  sure  that  Hobart  College  under 
your  Presidency  cannot  fail  to  add  further  lustre  to  its 
already  glorious  past. 

In  concluding  my  message  from  the  Chancellor  and 
Regents  of  the  University  may  I be  allowed  to  add  my  own 
hopes,  not  only  for  your  success,  but  for  your  personal  wel- 
fare and  happiness. 


< 


THE  SMALL  COLLEGE  AND  ITS  RELATION 
TO  THE  UNIVERSITY 


President  Isaac  Sharpless,  LL.D. 

The  most  evident  tendency  of  this  prosperous  age  is  towards 
organized  combination.  Small  institutions  are  being  swal- 
lowed up  in  large,  individual  enterprise  gives  way  before  col- 
lective effort.  A man  becomes  a link  in  a piece  of  living 
machinery,  the  specialist  from  whom  the  the  power  of  initia- 
tive has  departed,  an  organism  to  whom  the  principle  of 
division  of  labor  is  applied  to  its  greatest  possible  extent. 
Humanity  is  dealt  with  as  a whole  ; labor  is  as  impersonal 
as  capital.  Weakness  goes  to  the  wall  and  no  helping  hand 
is  extended  to  break  the  fall.  The  small  capitalist,  the 
independent  laborer  has  no  effective  advocates,  but  little 
practical  sympathy.  Human  relations  between  employer  and 
employee,  so  pleasing  in  the  days  of  small  enterprises,  have 
been  replaced  by  boards  of  arbitration  and  conciliation,  and 
by  the  merciless  rigidity  of  contracts. 

Such,  I say,  is  the  most  evident  tendency  of  the  times,  but 
deeper  than  this  is  another  equally  imperative,  which  is  point- 
ing towards  individualism.  The  man  is  not  going  to  be  lost 
in  the  machine  ; on  the  contrary,  born  of  the  very  mechani- 
cal tendencies  of  the  times,  comes  the  peremptory  cry  for 
leadership  and  initiative.  This  complex  age  is  not  yet  so 
highly  organized  as  to  run  itself,  and  every  increase  of  organi- 
zation makes  a louder  call  for  better  and  stronger  men.  It 
demands  greater  resources,  moral  and  mental,  to  drive  an 
engine  sixty  miles  an  hour  than  to  drive  a stage-coach,  to 
keep  an  electric  plant  in  operation  than  to  mould  and  snuff 
tallow  dips.  The  leader  of  a labor  organization  is  a man  of 
power  such  as  no  preceding  age  ever  called  for,  and  the 
president  of  a great  railroad  must  needs  display  an  ability 


14 


and  capacity  which  would  have  staggered  the  intellect  of  any 
king  or  emperor  of  earlier  centuries. 

Such  is  the  world  into  which  our  college  men  will  go.  We 
have  passed  the  age  when  the  ambition  of  a student  will  be 
to  develop  the  scholarly  recluse.  Scholarship  for  the  sake 
of  its  possession  has  but  few  charms.  The  Scholasticism  of 
the  Middle  Ages  has  departed  never  to  return.  So  has  the 
Greek  philosophers’  idea  that  knowledge  applied  to  utility 
and  progress  is  degraded.  We  demand  service,  religious, 
intellectual,  or  material,  as  the  test  of  the  value  of  knowledge, 
as  the  price  to  be  paid  for  honor  or  respect.  It  may  be 
investigation  the  fruits  of  which  will  not  be  seen  for  many 
days.  It  may  answer  as  Franklin  did  when  asked  the  use 
of  his  experiment  with  the  kite  : “What  is  the  use  of  a baby  ? 
Make  it  of  use.”  But  it  insists  that  there  shall  be  some  utility 
prospective  if  not  present.  Service  is  the  great  cry  of  the 
world.  By  its  fruits  shall  we  know  the  value  of  any  intellec- 
tual process,  not  its  direct  practical  fruits  alone,  but  such  as 
are  remote  and  probable,  as  well  as  such  as  are  collateral  and 
evident. 

What  justification  can  colleges  show  for  their  products  ? 
Evidently  they  will  not  create  the  machine  men  in  industry, 
politics,  or  society.  Their  mission  will  be  to  supply  leader- 
ship, originality,  individuality,  personal  force  and  character. 
The  college  men  will  open  out  the  lines  of  investigation, 
they  will  establish  the  principles  on  which  progress  can  be 
built,  they  will  lead  the  forces  of  workers,  they  will  assume 
the  heavy  responsibilities,  they  will  own  themselves  and  justify 
the  ownership. 

Arguing  backwards  from  the  demands  of  the  age  to  the 
character  of  the  institutions  which  will  meet  them,  we  have 
our  definition  of  the  American  College  as  it  should  be.  The 
technical  school  will  supply  the  practical  intelligent  workers 
in  the  crafts  and  arts.  The  professional  school  will  lay  the 


i5 


foundation  for  the  intellectual  pursuits  which  society  needs 
to  cure  its  ills — religious,  social,  and  physical.  But  there 
still  remains  the  need  of  men,  developed  on  liberal  lines, 
fearless  in  thought  and  positive  in  action,  courteous  in  man- 
ner and  honest  in  purpose,  and  these  the  colleges  must 
supply.  “ I want  young  men,”  said  to  me  recently  the  pres- 
ident of  a great  industrial  establishment,  4 ‘who  have  the 
mental  power  developed  by  a course  of  study  sufficient  to 
grasp  the  great  problems  of  our  business,  and  with  the 
address  and  carriage  which  will  secure  recognition  from 
others.  It  does  not  matter  what  they  have  studied,  Latin 
and  Greek,  preferably,  but  that  is  a secondary  question.” 
These  remarks  are  representative  of  several  others  of  similar 
import,  and  I infer  that  even  in  the  strenuous  practicality  of 
modern  industrialism  there  is  a growing  demand  for  mental 
power,  for  the  manners  of  a gentleman,  and  for  character, 
entirely  apart  from  knowledge  of  technique  and  successful 
devotion  to  routine. 

Recently  a large  fear  has  existed  that  the  old  American 
college  would  become  extinct.  It  is  an  institution  practically 
unknown  in  Europe,  where  the  boys  go  from  the  secondary 
schools  to  the  professional  schools  or  to  the  special  courses  of 
the  universities.  There  are  evidences  that  the  same  tenden- 
cies are  in  operation  in  America,  due  to  advancement  of 
standards  for  college  admission,  and  the  lengthening  of  pro- 
fessional courses.  The  effect  is  to  increase  the  age  for 
profitable  business  career,  and  hence  to  drive  out  of  the  sup- 
posedly non-essential  college  course  many  men  of  moderate 
resources.  To  meet  this  difficulty  many  remedies  have  been 
suggested.  One  president  advises  granting  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts  at  the  end  of  two  years,  and  sending  on  the 
boys  with  a benediction  to  the  technical  school.  Various 
devices  for  shortening  courses  from  four  to  three  years  have 
been  tried, — making  the  fourth  year  the  first  of  the  professional 


1 6 


school,  and  crowding  the  four  years  into  three.  The  latter 
is  the  only  one  which  seems  to  me  justifiable.  I should  be 
very  sorry  to  dignify  such  irresponsible  and  immature  youth 
as  Sophomores  are  with  the  honorable  degree  of  Bachelor, 
and  I do  not  like  to  cut  off  from  the  life  of  the  student  the 
Senior  year  with  all  its  glorious  possibilities  for  the  develop* 
ment  of  manliness,  and  make  it  simply  a question  of  elemen- 
tary chemistry  and  biology  in  a medical  school.  In  a minor- 
ity of  cases  a young  man  can  do  the  whole  work  of  a course 
in  three  years — a young  man  who  has  brilliant  talents  and  no 
time  to  spare — and  I believe  we  should  make  arrangements 
to  suit  such  conditions.  Here  I am  inclined  to  stop.  I 
think  there  will  be  enough  people  who  prefer  general  develop- 
ment to  specialized  advancement,  and  who  can  afford  to  pay 
for  it,  to  sustain  institutions  like  Hobart.  And  no  matter  if 
high  schools  continue  with  state  aid  to  advance  courses  till 
they  connect  with  the  professional  school,  so  that  there  seems 
to  be  no  gap  in  the  continuity  of  the  curriculum,  there  will 
always  be  a great  gap  in  that  man’s  intellectual  resources 
who  omits  the  training  of  the  residential  college  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  scholarship  and  the  collegiate  manners  that  proclaim 
to  every  one  the  country  over  that  their  possessor  is  a college 
man.  The  more  people  talk  of  the  non-necessity  of  the  col- 
lege to  business  and  professional  success,  the  more  they  pro- 
claim that  no  institution  but  the  college  can  stand  out  against 
the  mercenary  standards  of  the  age,  that  that  alone  can  save 
scholarship  and  culture,  and  that,  if  we  omit  it,  we  are  all 
gone  over  to  Philistinism  and  the  worship  of  money. 

Some  one  has  recently  compiled  from  “Who’s  Who  in 
America”  the  educational  careers  of  those  who  have  achieved 
greatness  of  the  proper  quality  and  quantity  to  secure  men- 
tion in  that  interesting  publication.  As  was  to  have  been 
expected,  college  men  are  there  vastly  out  of  proportion  to 
their  numbers  in  the  community.  Also,  what  might  not 


17 


have  been  so  confidently  anticipated,  the  graduates  of  small 
colleges  considerably  outnumber  those  from  large  colleges, 
proportionally  considered.  One  must  not  lay  too  great  stress 
on  this  measure  of  success  in  supplying  leaders  to  the  present 
age.  It  means  something,  however,  and  shows  that  colleges 
are  partially  fulfilling  their  duties  as  we  have  outlined  them. 
It  will  give  us  courage  not  to  apologize  for  our  existence  but 
to  move  on  with  wisdom  and  alertness  to  extend  our  influ- 
ence in  the  field  we  have  occupied  with  signal  success  in  the 
past. 

And  yet  at  the  outset  of  any  particular  consideration  of  our 
duties  and  methods  we  must  extend  a caution . Because  the 
old  college  has  turned  out  worthy  men  we  need  not  copy  it 
with  absolute  fidelity.  Because  a classical  curriculum  has 
produced  men  of  light  and  leading  we  need  not  conclude  that 
that  alone  can  do  it.  There  is  room  in  the  changing  condi- 
tions of  the  world  for  adaptation  and  evolution.  Many  small 
colleges  have  in  their  constituencies  students  who  need,  not 
the  humanities  alone,  but  the  culture  that  comes  of  observa- 
tion, of  contact  with  nature’s  laws  and  facts,  of  the  solution 
of  problems  involving  manual  as  well  as  mental  grasp  and 
power.  It  is  not  at  all  clear  that  we  should  relegate  all 
these  to  the  technical  schools.  We  may  very  properly  take 
the  broader  view,  that  though  our  object  is  culture  rather  than 
technique,  yet  that  culture  comes  in  varying  ways  by  different 
processes  into  the  brains  of  students  ; that  some  achieve  it  by 
linguistic  study  and  philosophical  thought  and  literary  stimu- 
lus, and  some  by  the  route  of  the  laboratory  and  draughting 
room.  If  our  motive  is  to  make,  not  men  of  scholarship 
apart  from  service,  but  men  of  scholarship  fitted  for  the  high- 
est service,  we  will  not  confuse  method  with  result,  but  will 
with  open  minds  use  whatever  methods  are  best  adapted  in 
individual  cases  to  produce  the  most  beneficent  results. 
There  is  always  a possibility  of  adapting  old  conditions  to  new 


duties.  An  ancient  English  fund  donated  to  burn  heretics  is 
used  to  warm  non-conformists.  The  elective  system  in  some 
form  seems  to  me  essential  to  the  working  of  any  college,  for 
we  are  not  likely  to  secure  such  division  of  labor  that  the 
minds  best  adapted  to  one  line  of  study  will  all  go  to  one 
college.  Each  institution  must  furnish  more  or  less  of  a com- 
plete menu  and  all  the  problems  involving  “soft  courses/ ’ 
methods  of  election,  and  the  state  of  advancement  in  which 
election  should  be  permitted,  will  have  to  be  met  by  the  col- 
lective wisdom  of  the  faculty  and  the  guiding  influence  of 
the  president.  While  the  subject  is  one  on  which  opinions 
may  properly  differ,  my  own  conclusions  have  been  tending 
towards  free  election,  as  distinguished  from  the  group  system 
and  other  restrictive  features. 

The  great  matter  is  to  maintain  the  scholarly  standard  in 
the  college.  If  the  student  body  is  infused  with  the  idea  of 
the  vast  utilities  of  intellectual  power  in  itself,  and  ceases  to 
demand  only  a course  of  study  which  seems  to  its  rather  nar- 
row vision  of  immediate  practical  profit  in  business,  it  is  safe 
to  allow  pretty  wide  latitude  in  choice.  While  the  educa- 
tional values  of  all  subjects  may  not  be  equivalent,  the  spirit 
with  which  the  work  is  taken  up  is  of  first  consequence,  and 
the  youth  who  chooses  under  the  inspiration  of  lofty  ambi- 
tions will  make  any  subject  yield  its  enduring  value.  For 
the  easy  courses — and  it  seems  to  me,  after  several  years  of 
trial,  impossible  to  avoid  having  them — these  things  may  be 
said  : they  will  afford  a side  issue  for  the  hard  working  special- 
ist, who  wishes  to  fill  up  his  required  weekly  number  of  hours 
and  still  concentrate  his  main  efforts  on  his  chosen  subject ; and 
they  are  also  a refuge  for  the  respectable  and  honest  student 
of  moderate  ability, who  would  entirely  fail  if  everything  were 
rigid  and  erudite,  and  yet  who  gets  as  large  a percentage  of 
intellectual  profit  as  any. 

I take  it  that  one  of  the  weaknesses  of  our  American 


*9 


education  is  that  it  neglects  the  excellent  for  the  deficient. 
We  are  so  engaged  iu  whipping  up  the  rear  that  the  van  gets 
along  as  best  it  can.  It  is  part  of  the  levelling  up  and  down 
process  of  our  democracy.  But  intellectual  equality  is 
neither  possible  nor  desirable.  We  may  not,  of  course, 
slight  the  man  of  slender  abilities,  of  negligent  habits,  or  of 
unscholarly  tastes,  but  a heavier  responsibility  rests  upon  us 
for  the  largely  endowed  and  earnestly  ambitious  man  for 
whom  a great  place  in  the  world  is  waiting.  Shall  we  allow 
him  to  drift  along  unaided  and  undirected  ? Shall  we  harness 
him  with  a class  of  men  of  lower  possibilities  and  demand 
equality  of  results,  mediocre  attainments  in  every  direction? 
Average  good  is  not  what  we  want.  A man  claimed  he  had 
an  average  supper  because  his  tea  was  weak  and  his  butter 
was  strong.  There  is  but  little  justification  for  that  school 
or  teacher  who  can  simply  say  that  he  has  brought  up  his 
worst,  if  in  doing  it  he  has  sacrificed  the  aspirations  of  his 
best.  Given  in  a small  college  the  tithe  of  students,  emulous 
of  the  best  that  has  been  done,  unsatisfied  with  anything 
short  of  the  best  that  they  can  do,  and  the  whole  problem  of 
the  intellectual  status  of  the  college  is  solved.  There  is  a 
pull  from  above  instead  of  a push  from  below,  which  with 
flimsy  material  is  more  efficient. 

But  only  a part  of  the  duty  of  a college  is  performed  when 
it  creates  wholesome  intellectual  conditions.  A student  is  a 
piece  of  humanity  as  well  as  a studying  machine.  He  has 
an  inherent  love  of  sport  and  recreation  ; he  has  principles 
as  precious  to  him  as  life  which  he  wishes  to  rectify  or  con- 
firm ; he  has  habits  and  tendencies  more  vital  to  him  than 
his  purely  intellectual  qualities  which  need  room  to  develop 
and  to  adapt.  Certain  human  relations  must  exist  between 
the  various  elements  of  college  life.  The  student  must  know 
and  appreciate  the  manliness  as  well  as  the  scholarliness  of 
the  faculty  ; the  faculty  must  look  on  the  students  as 


20 


men  preparing  for  great  careers  rather  than  as  intellectual 
material  to  be  worked  into  linguists  and  chemists. 

In  this  reciprocal  friendliness  will  lie  the  charm  as  well  as 
the  profit  of  college  life.  A little  sense  of  humor  revealing 
humanity  has  saved  many  a professor.  The  students  of  a 
certain  large  college,  finding  a load  of  coal  on  the  pavement 
outside  a new  professor's  window,  threw  it  in  piece  by  piece 
through  the  glass.  When  he  met  them  the  next  morning, 
his  only  comment  was  that  he  had  just  been  asked  by  a friend 
the  amount  of  his  salary.  He  would  tell  him  that  it  was  a 
thousand  dollars  and  the  coal  thrown  in.  He  had  conquered. 
How  pleasing  are  the  traditions  and  recollections  that  cluster 
around  some  strong  man  who  has  made  his  impression  on  an 
institution.  His  ponderous  learning  may  aid  him,  but  the 
stories  that  are  passed  around  are  little  revelations  of  his 
kindliness,  of  his  indignation,  of  his  humor,  even  of  his 
anger  and  excitement.  I heard  a young  man  gloating  over 
the  fact  that  his  honored  but  rather  erratic  president  had 
called  him  a blackguard. 

The  instinct  for  human  brotherhood  is  inextinguishable. 
It  may  be  held  in  abeyance  by  adverse  conditions,  but  it  will 
break  out  if  you  give  it  any  chance  and  enrich  the  whole  field 
of  life.  The  college  where  four  formative  years  are  spent 
cannot  with  safety  ignore  it . “ Where  do  your  students  sleep  ? 9 9 
was  asked  of  a Scottish  university  official . “ How  should  I 

know  ?”  was  the  reply,  “they  may  sleep  in  the  gutter  for  all 
I can  tell."  No  American  college  would  dare  to  say  any- 
thing of  that  kind,  and  yet  many  an  American  professor 
gives  his  lecture  and  goes  to  his  home  with  a full  conscious- 
ness of  duty  done.  He  is  paid  to  leave  so  much  knowledge 
at  the  doorsteps  of  his  hearers,  as  the  milkman’s  product  is 
left  at  his  own,  and  the  examination  will  show  whether  or  not 
they  have  digested  it.  At  any  rate  he  has  fulfilled  his  con- 
tract. 


This  exclusively  commercial  idea  the  small  colleges,  at 
any  rate,  must  avoid.  In  so  far  as  they  can  afford  it  they 
must  surround  themselves  with  every  opportunity  for  physi- 
cal recreation  and  pastime.  If  their  professors  have  in  them 
plenty  of  warm  blood  and  interest  enough  to  understand  the 
games  which  their  students  play,  so  that  they  can  talk  them  over 
intelligently  and  sympathetically,  it  will  be  surprising  how 
soon  this  troublesome  question  of  athletics  will  be  solved. 
All  these  harsh  criticisms  of  present  conditions  are,  in  cer- 
tain places  and  times,  true.  Players  are  bought  by  financial 
aid  to  give  their  valuable  services  as  pitcher  or  full-back  to 
certain  educational  (?)  institutions.  Coaches  give  instruc- 
tions in  out- witting  umpires,  in  disabling  opponents  physically 
and  mentally.  Victory  is  the  object  and  the  bad  methods 
by  which  it  is  reached  are  very  venial  faults  lapsing  into 
virtues.  All  of  this  is  thoroughly  demoralizing,  disgusting, 
and  unsportsmanlike.  It  does  not  defile  all  our  athletics, 
but  if  sporadic  there  is  too  much  to  gratify  our  national  pride 
or  to  provide  for  wholesome  standards  in  the  future  life  of 
the  players.  Much  of  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  college 
faculties  have  often  felt  their  duty  to  be  restrictive  rather 
than  sympathetic.  Yet  how  readily  the  athletes  will  respond 
to  the  man  who  knows  their  difficulties  and  cheers  on  their 
efforts,  and  who  always  holds  up  to  them  the  loftiest  stand- 
ards of  true  sport — who  tells  them  in  language  they  can 
understand  that  4 ‘the  game’s  the  thing”  and  victory  is  to 
be  sought  only  by  decent  methods  ; that  defeats  will  some- 
times bring  more  honor  to  themselves  and  their  college  than 
conquest ; and  that  an  institution  known  to  be  wedded  to 
straight  dealing  and  willing  to  suffer  for  it,  will  arouse  more 
enthusiasm  among  its  students,  past,  present  and  prospect- 
ive, than  can  be  gained  by  any  series  of  successes  won  by 
unrighteous  means.  Such  a man,  and  he  only,  may  also 
convince  them  of  the  true  subordination  of  the  physical  to  the 


22 


intellectual,  and  of  the  lack  of  proper  proportion  which  so 
easily  grows  up  when  the  sporting  spirit  dominates  the  col- 
lege. I have  no  wish  to  turn  our  Educational  Institutions 
into  Country  Clubs,  but  I do  not  believe  our  high  ideals  of 
scholarship  or  morals  will  suffer  with  any  reasonable  equip- 
ment for  the  gratification  of  the  sporting  instinct,  provided 
the  games  and  the  studies  are  not  arrayed  against  each  other 
in  hostile  camps,  but  rather  are  parts  of  one  general  system 
in  which  there  is  cooperation  and  confidence. 

No  less  true  is  it  that  the  side  of  student  life  dealing  with 
conduct  and  character  requires  full  provision  for  its  needs. 
The  most  of  our  colleges,  apart  from  the  state  institutions, 
had  a denominational  origin.  The  motive  power  which 
founded  Harvard,  Yale  and  Princeton  was  to  train  ministers. 
Nearly  all  the  small  colleges  are  more  or  less  loosely  asso- 
ciated with  denominations.  Very  few,  if  any,  are  markedly 
sectarian,  and  any  student  can  attend  without  fear  of  serious 
attempts  being  made  to  proselyte  him.  But  if  the  denomina- 
tional idea  is  fading,  the  religious  idea  is  still  prevalent.  It 
takes  a form  less  doctrinal  than  in  the  past,  but  it  inculcates 
reverence,  devotion,  a belief  in  a gracious  and  kindly  Heav- 
enly Father,  and  a love  for  his  living  creatures  of  all  ranks. 
It  demands  righteousness  as  sternly  as  does  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  love  perennial  and  universal  as  does  the  New.  It 
spreads  the  war  cry  of  the  French  Revolution,  “ Liberty, 
Fraternity,  Equality.’ ’ If  less  willing  to  accept  the  ipse 
dictum  of  any  man  or  book,  it  finds  in  the  whole  trend  of 
modern  thought  a welcome  confirmation  of  the  religion  of 
Christ  in  its  purity  and  simplicity.  With  the  loss  of  some 
things  we  should  like  to  retain,  it  brings  whole  floods  of  facts 
and  arguments  upon  which  we  may  build  a reasonable  faith. 
Law  reigns  not  only  in  the  physical  world,  but  as  well  in  the 
world  of  mind,  of  will,  of  feelings,  of  revelation,  and  of 
miracle.  If  the  border  line  between  the  Spiritual  and  the 


23 


Secular  is  breaking  down,  it  is  because  the  Spiritual  has 
spread  its  supremacy  over  the  whole.  This  modern  trend 
has  its  home  in  our  colleges.  All  denominations  are  feeling 
its  influences,  and  hence  are  being  drawn  together.  The 
chances  for  healthy,  united,  effective  work  were  never  so 
great.  The  man  that  can  touch  the  springs  of  action  in  the 
students’  thoughts  and  characters  is  the  man  for  the  day. 
He  may  be  a preacher  of  power  and  efficacy,  or  he  maybe 
a quiet  man  whose  spirit  and  force  are  felt  rather  than  heard  ; 
but  he  must  be  a personality,  strong  enough  to  make  an 
impression  on  character.  There  is  such  a thing  as  weight  as 
well  as  brilliancy.  It  is  said  that  the  Rugby  boys  of  to-day 
carry  into  university  life  a seriousness,  a sense  of  responsi- 
bility for  curing  the  evils  of  the  world,  which  is  an  inheritance 
of  the  Arnoldian  influence  on  the  school  in  the  past.  In  the 
development  of  many  a small  college  in  America  there  has 
been  some  man  who,  by  his  wisdom,  his  authority,  his  strong 
sympathies,  and  undeniable  power,  has  stamped  for  more 
than  one  generation  his  ways  of  looking  at  life  for  this 
world  and  the  next  on  the  young  manhood  which  came 
within  his  reach.  Such  a man  must  have  a free  foot.  He 
may  be  angular  and  eccentric.  As  a cooperative  force  in  the 
faculty,  he  may  have  serious  limitations,  but  he  is  worth 
more  than  many  ordinary  useful  men  to  the  institution  that 
possesses  his  services.  Such  a man  at  a little  college,  when 
he  found  matters  were  not  going  his  way  in  a faculty  meet- 
ing, would  take  up  his  chair  and  place  it  in  the  corner  with 
his  face  to  the  wall,  as  a token  that  he  washed  his  hands  of 
responsibility  for  the  action,  and  there  he  would  remain  till 
the  next  subject  was  taken  up.  Yet  his  students  who  are 
now  men  will  tell  us  that  his  impress  is  the  one  thing  of 
greatest  value  they  retain  from  their  college  days.  Sternly 
he  would  remand  some  offender  into  his  private  room,  yet  as 
the  conversation  proceeded  the  warm  feeling  would  show 


24 


itself  behind  the  austere  face,  and  the  eloquent  tears  of 
sympathy  would  course  his  cheeks,  as  heart  touched  heart  in 
confidential  communion.  Not  the  most  potent  influences 
toward  scholarship,  not  the  wisest  conduct  of  sports,  are  to 
be  compared  in  importance  with  this  concert  of  action  in  the 
realm  of  conduct  and  motive.  “ Manners  makyth  Man,”  says 
the  Winchester  motto — manners — in  the  good  old  English 
sense  which  embraced  morals  as  well  as  courtesy.  If  that 
idea  could  be  stamped  on  every  wall  of  our  colleges,  and  still 
better  on  every  student’s  standards  of  living,  the  American 
college  would  have  a place  in  American  history  unique  and 
indestructible.  The  question  of  its  future  would  no  more 
disturb  its  fearful  friends.  The  manhood  of  the  faculty  is 
the  strongest  single  element  in  making  a great  small  college. 

Two  words  must  characterize  such  a college — unity  and 
vigor.  In  whatever  it  undertakes,  in  its  studies,  its  sports, 
its  religious  exercises,  its  habits  of  living  and  thinking,  every 
factor  must  be  interested.  There  is  nothing  which  should  not 
concern  its  faculty  and  nothing  which  should  not  interest  its 
students.  The  triumph  of  any  one,  whether  on  the  ball  field 
or  in  the  intellectual  arena,  should  be  the  triumph  of  all,  and 
of  any  defeat  all  must  learn  the  lesson.  Only  one  front  must 
it  present  to  the  world,  and  loyalty  must  be  ingrained  into 
every  element  of  its  life.  There  are  colleges  with  disloyal 
faculties,  and  there  are  colleges  with  disloyal  students,  but 
they  are  not  colleges  with  which  you  or  I care  to  be  connected. 

Equally  important  is  vigor.  A small  college  is  so  respon- 
sive to  the  prevailing  influence  of  a little  but  for  the  time 
being  potent  faction,  that  a spirit  of  quiet  self-complacency 
or  dilettanteism  may  sometimes  take  possession  of  it.  Meas- 
uring itself  by  itself  it  is  hardly  conscious  of  its  inefficiency, 
and  goes  on  in  an  easy  way,  mediocre  in  everything.  In  a 
large  institution,  if  one  part  degenerates,  it  is  shaken  up  by 
contact  with  the  rest  and  rights  itself.  The  momentum  of  the 


25 


whole  carries  along  the  floating  fragments.  But  if  a small 
institution  stagnates,  it  is  time  to  open  out  the  sluices  and  fill 
with  a fresh  and  vigorous  current. 

All  this  involves  the  idea  that  the  small  college  can  com- 
mand the  men  and  equipment  to  make  it  effective.  I verily 
believe  that  a bad  small  college  is  the  worst  thing  in  the  edu- 
cational universe.  I notice  that  many  of  us  think  that  better 
results  would  be  gained  if  we  were  just  a little  larger  than  we 
are.  But  may  we  not  hope  to  see  a line  of  institutions,  prodi- 
gal of  resources  when  any  intellectual  or  character  need  is  to 
be  supplied,  and  with  a firm  belief  that  it  is  better  to  concen- 
trate forces  on  the  few,  and  so  resist  that  demand  so  imperi- 
ous in  America  for  ever  increasing  bigness.  It  may  and 
probably  will  cost  twice  as  much  to  educate  a student  in  a 
good  small  college  as  in  a large  university.  There  are  plenty 
of  young  graduates  carried  on  the  teaching  forces  of  these  uni- 
versities who  would  wreck  the  reputation  of  a college,  used 
to  having  learned  and  experienced  men  in  contact  with  every 
class.  There  are  plenty  of  mental  and  moral  failures  among 
their  Freshmen  who  would  readily  be  saved  in  the  more  inti- 
mate and  individual  life  of  the  college  or  who  would  be 
excluded  from  its  ranks.  Both  the  university  and  the  college 
are  needed  in  the  diversified  demands  of  the  age.  Fidelity 
to  our  ideals,  and  efficiency  in  our  methods,  will  surely  make 
for  us  a constituency  large  enough  for  our  modest  purposes. 

“ Colleges  will  do  for  the  East,  but  the  West  must  have  the 
best  of  everything,’ ’ said  the  agent  of  a small  capitalist  who 
was  about  to  found  a University,  as  he  called  it,  in  the  Miss- 
issippi Valley.  We  may  not  deceive  ourselves  by  names. 
We  are  colleges  and  nothing  more  pretentious.  If  we  choose, 
we  will  have  recitations  and  not  lectures,  compulsory  attend- 
ance and  regulations,  and  all  the  other  nomenclature  of  col- 
leges. We  have  enough  faith  in  our  mission  and  prospects 
to  strengthen  ourselves  along  the  old  lines,  and  we  look  hope- 


fully  forward  to  the  time  when  these  United  States  shall  be 
dotted  over  with  well-endowed,  well-equipped,  well-officered 
institutions,  strong  enough  to  command  respect  and  self- 
assured  enough  to  be  able  to  resist  the  temptation  to  be  any 
thing  but  small  colleges. 


PRESIDENT  STEWARDSON'S  ADDRESS  TO 
THE  TRUSTEES 


Mr.  Chairman  arid  Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Trustees : 

Before  turning  to  the  subject  I have  chosen  for  my  ad- 
dress, it  is  an  act  befitting  the  present  occasion,  as  well  as 
my  personal  desire,  that  I should  publicly  express  to  you  my 
deep  appreciation  of  the  honor  you  have  done  me  in  calling 
me  to  the  presidency  of  Hobart  College.  You  have  been 
good  enough  to  assure  me  that  my  work  is  to  be  that  of  col- 
lege education  rather  than  that  of  financial  management,  and 
for  this  assurance  I wish  to  reiterate  my  thanks. 

Hobart  has  had  a long  and  honorable  history,  and  her 
graduates  have  taken  notable  rank  and  standing  in  both  pro- 
fessional and  business  life.  She  has  maintained  a high 
standard  of  scholastic  excellence  and  is  to  be  heartily  con- 
gratulated upon  the  efficient  and  oftentimes  self-sacrificing 
labors  of  her  Trustees  and  Faculty.  It  is  my  intention 
that,  with  your  assistance,  this  high  standard  shall  be  relig- 
iously maintained,  and  it  is  my  hope  that  it  may  be  even 
raised  and  strengthened. 

Our  specific  work  of  course  is  that  of  the  college  and  not 
of  the  university,  and  our  stability  and  success  depend  upon 
the  firm  and  self-respecting  recognition  of  this  fact.  It 
should,  I think,  be  clearly  understood  that  we  have  no  more 
ambitious  aspiration  than  that  of  giving  the  very  best  sort  of 
collegiate  training  to  American  youth.  Within  the  generous 
limits  of  this  high  ideal  there  will  be  ample  opportunity  for 
development  and  every  incentive  to  progress.  No  living  in- 
stitution can  stand  still.  The  college  must  be  a thing  of 
growth  in  order  that  it  may  be  a thing  of  life. 

We  have  then  an  exalted  mission,  modest  though  it  be  in 
comparison  with  the  more  pretentious  tasks  and  obligations  of 


23 


the  university,  and  the  burden  of  my  heart's  desire  is  that  I 
may  be  of  some  real  service  to  Hobart  College  in  helping  her 
discharge  and  realize  it. 

The  work  itself  is  congenial  to  me  ; the  kind  and  even 
warm  encouragement  I have  received  from  Trustees  and 
Faculty,  Alumni  and  Undergraduates  has  roused  my  enthu- 
siasm. It  is  therefore  with  a good  courage  that  I face  the 
future.  I am  glad  to  be  of  your  company.  I esteem  myself 
highly  favored  in  the  opportunity  to  preside  over  your  affairs, 
and  I am  happy  in  the  thought  that  we  are  all  to  work  to- 
gether for  those  great  ends  of  truth  and  righteousness  which 
are  the  enlightenment  and  the  salvation  of  the  world. 


( 


INAUGURAL  ORATION 


THE  WORLD  AND  THE  IDEAL  IN  THE  ACADEMIC 
EDUCATION  OF  MAN 

There  are  two  great  centres  to  which  the  consciousness  of 
man  is  drawn  and  about  which  it  gathers  itself.  We  may 
call  them  the  44  centre  of  sensation”  and  the  “ centre  of 
thought.”  Within  the  first  the  facts  of  the  actual  world 
report  themselves.  Through  all  the  avenues  of  sense  these 
facts  flow  in  and  form  in  consciousness  the  outer  world  of 
man’s  experience.  These  facts,  however,  lie,  so  to  speak, 
upon  the  periphery  of  consciousness.  Deeper  in  and  often 
so  far  removed  from  the  sights  and  sounds  of  outward  objects 
that  it  seems  to  have  no  connection  with  them  whatsoever  lies 
what  I have  called  the  centre  of  thought.  It  is  the  centre 
out  of  which  proceed  the  ideas  by  which  the  facts  of  sense 
are  unified  into  conscious  wholes  and  from  which  emerge  the 
ideals  by  which  they  are  transformed  and  glorified. 

But,  far  removed  as  these  two  centres — the  centre  of  sen- 
sation and  the  centre  of  thought — often  seem  to  be,  they  are 
nevertheless  closely  and  vitally  associated.  Sensation  pro- 
vides the  raw  material  out  of  which  the  sublimated  concep- 
tions of  the  inner  man  are  fashioned  and  also  furnishes  the 
needed  stimuli  by  which  they  are  aroused  to  life.  And  yet, 
inseparably  associated  as  these  two  centres  are  in  fact,  they 
often  lose  for  each  other  the  feeling  of  relationship.  And 
this  arises  in  large  part  from  the  counter  attractions  which 
they  respectively  afford  to  men  of  different  occupations,  tasks 
or  needs  and  also  even  to  the  selfsame  man  in  unlike  moods 
or  situations.  In  certain  exalted  moments  when  one  feels 
oneself  peculiarly  at  home  in  the  spirit  one  seems  almost 
altogether  absent  from  the  body,  and  in  other  moments  when 
the  hard  and  insistent  facts  of  sense  demand  attention  one 


3° 


feels  at  an  immeasurable  distance  from  the  realm  of  spirit. 
Moreover,  these  antipodal  states  of  consciousness,  in  which 
the  self  of  one  moment  seems  separated  from  the  self  of  the 
preceding  moment  by  the  whole  diameter  of  being,  obtain  a 
definite  embodiment,  each  for  itself,  in  certain  well-nigh 
isolated  and  often  hostile  social  groups.  Some  men  find  the 
outer  world  of  nature  or  affairs  suprem  ely  fascinating  ; others 
are  drawn  by  an  equally  potent  and  instinctive  interest  to  the 
problems  and  vicissitudes  of  character  and  mind.  The  pre- 
vailing attitude  of  one  class  faces  to  wards  the  environments 
of  human  nature  ; the  prevailing  attitude  of  the  other  con- 
fronts human  nature  itself — its  being,  possibilities  and  laws 
of  growth  ; and  with  the  result  that  certain  opposites  of 
thought  as  well  as  certain  antagonisms  of  life  and  spirit  are 
evoked.  We  know  these  opposites  and  these  antagonisms 
under  many  well-worn  names — theory  and  practice,  culture 
and  utility,  the  ideal  and  the  real,  the  spirit  and  the  flesh. 
They  are  strangers  to  none  of  us,  for  we  have  all,  in  one  form 
or  another,  experienced  the  stress  and  strain  of  their  too  fre- 
quent conflict.  They  show  themselves,  moreover,  in  every 
sphere  of  human  activity  and  interest,  and  the  sphere  of 
education  is  no  exception  to  the  rule.  Here  as  everywhere 
else  there  is  strife  between  the  men  of  outlook  and  the  men 
of  insight,  between  environment  and  character,  between  the 
sensational  periphery  of  Being  and  its  inner  spiritual  core. 

It  is  plain,  however,  that  sensation  is  as  integral  an  ele- 
ment of  the  psychical  life  as  thought  itself  ; for  in  it  we 
obtain  that  consciousness  of  outwardness  and  outward  objects 
which  plays  so  large  a part  in  mental  action.  Yet  plainer 
still  is  the  fact  that  man  is  not  only  the  possessor  of  a mind, 
but  also  an  inhabitant  of  the  world,  and  therefore  his  educa- 
tion must  include  not  merely  self-development  but  earthly 
citizenship.  He  must  not  only  know  himself,  but  also  know 
his  world  ; for  it  is  a life  within  that  world  which  he  is  called 


31 

upon  to  live.  All  educational  systems  must  therefore  provide 
for  the  demands  of  the  world  as  well  as  for  the  needs  of  the 
spirit,  and  all  educational  institutions  must  be  prepared  to 
give  not  merely  training  for  the  mind  but  preparation  for  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  indubitable  as  it  is  that  in  any  proper 
theory  or  practice  of  education,  sensation  and  thought,  the 
world  and  the  ideal,  are  of  coordinate  value,  a persistent 
attempt  has  been  made  during  the  past  thirty  years  to  antag- 
onize and  separate  them.  The  more  extreme  representatives 
of  one  school  have  so  overemphasized  the  principle  of  util- 
ity in  education  that  they  have  either  ignored  or  despised  the 
claims  of  culture  ; whereas  the  exclusive  and  often  archaic 
advocates  of  culture  have  taken  no  pains  to  conceal  their  high 
disdain  for  the  utilitarian  aims  and  principles  of  their  oppo- 
nents. The  phases  and  ramifications  of  this  dispute  are  far 
too  numerous  to  follow  in  detail,  and  my  only  reason  for 
mentioning  the  dispute  at  all  is  to  bring  out  in  clear  relief  the 
two  chief  factors  which  education  must  take  into  account. 
The  purpose  of  the  present  discussion  is  therefore  to  describe 
in  part  the  necessary  roles  which  the  World  and  the  Ideal  play 
in  the  process  of  human  education  as  well  as  to  indicate  by 
implication  rather  than  by  detailed  logical  analysis  some  of 
the  more  important  reasons  why  any  adequate  method  of 
education  should  recognize  and  comprehend  them  both. 

Now  the  World  and  the  Ideal  alike  make  demands  upon 
education,  and  strive  to  determine  what  it  shall  be  and  do. 
The  demand  of  the  World  comes  from  without ; the  demand 
of  the  Ideal  comes  from  within.  Let  us  first  look  at  the 
demand  of  the  World.  What  is  it?  It  is  the  demand  that 
education  shall  have  outlook  ; that  it  shall  be  such  as  will  fit 
young  men  for  the  actual  business  of  life,  teach  them  to  see 
things  as  they  are  and  develop  in  them  such  qualities  of 
mind  and  character  as  will  enable  them  to  grapple  with  pres- 
ent difficulties  and  achieve  present  success.  In  a word,  it 


32 


is  the  demand  that  education  shall  be  directed  towards  some 
immediately  useful  end,  that  it  shall  be  utilitarian,  practical. 

And  this,  by  the  way,  is  far  from  being  a new  demand.  It 
was  the  demand  of  the  Spartan  world  of  centuries  ago  when 
it  required  that  its  youth  should  be  perfect  specimens  of 
physical  manhood  and  trained  alike  to  endure  hardship  and 
submit  to  discipline.  Later  on  and  under  different  condi- 
tions it  was  the  demand  of  the  Athenian  world  when  it  insisted 
that  its  young  men  should  be  taught  the  arts  of  rhetoric  and 
public  speech  in  order  that  they  might  be  fitted  to  discuss 
the  political  affairs  and  guide  the  political  destinies  of  a 
democracy.  It  is  also,  of  course,  a demand  which,  in  one 
form  or  another,  has  been  almost  unceasingly  preferred  ever 
since,  but  which  becomes  especially  mandatory  and  emphatic 
at  those  times  when  the  rapid  march  of  outward  events 
evolves  such  radical  changes  in  the  social  world  as  bring 
it  into  open  conflict  with  the  cherished  aims  and  more  con- 
servative spirit  of  its  educational  institutions.  It  is  then 
that  the  cry  of  the  world  for  the  reform  of  these  institutions 
is  loud  and  strong.  It  is  then  that  it  insists  upon  special 
recognition  of  itself  within  the  thought  of  its  professed  edu- 
cators, and  asks  that  its  youth  be  prepared  to  solve  the  prob- 
lems of  immediate  existence  and  equipped  to  deal  with  prac- 
tical affairs. 

Such  is  the  demand  of  the  world  ; and  never  before,  in  the 
long  and  changeful  history  which  the  world  has  had,  has  this, 
its  specific  demand,  been  so  widespread  as  now.  Never 
before  has  it  been  so  forcibly  backed  by  argument  and  inter- 
est as  in  our  modern  world  of  mingled  industry  and  science. 
It  comes  to  us  from  all  sides  and  from  every  walk  of  life.  It 
is  not  merely  the  business  man  who  asks  that  his  son  be  taught 
something  that  is  worth  while  and  that  may  be  put  to  practi- 
cal uses  on  the  street,  neither  is  it  the  poor  man  alone  who 
decides  that  he  cannot  waste  his  money  on  a college  educa- 


33 


tion  for  his  boys  but  must  devote  it  to  the  more  utilitarian 
need  of  a purely  technical  curriculum.  No,  the  demand  is 
also  made  by  professional  experts  and  distinguished  specialists, 
and  it  is  everywhere  reinforced  by  the  spirit  and  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  age.  Darwin  has  established,  beyond  the  perad- 
venture  of  a doubt,  the  selective  potency  which  is  universally 
exerted  by  the  natural  world  on  life,  and  Spencer,  with  long 
reiterated  proof,  has  shown  that  in  the  struggle  for  existence 
those  who  are  best  adapted  to  their  physical  and  social  envi- 
ronments are  surest  to  survive.  It  is  thus  that  from  many 
directions  the  importance  of  the  outer  world  has  been  pressed 
home  on  human  consciousness  ; and  it  has  resulted  in  that 
new  attitude  of  the  mind  towards  nature  and  all  external 
things  which  is  declared  by  many  to  be  the  characteristic  fea- 
ture of  our  day.  “ The  new  attitude  towards  Nature  is  one 
of  great  respect, ” says  a typical  writer  on  this  subject  in  the 
Educational  Review . “ Science  has  conquered  the  world. 

Culture  for  its  own  sake  has  gone  up  in  smoke.  Culture  for 
the  sake  of  making  the  whole  man  active  for  the  purposes  of 
masterful  reaction  with  an  external  world  of  affairs  has  taken 
its  place.’ ’ 

The  effects  of  this  new'  attitude  upon  Education  and  Edu- 
cational Institutions  have  been  far-reaching  and  profound.  It 
has  asked  of  these  institutions  that  their  courses  and  methods 
be  such  as  take  account  of  the  subsequent  life  work  of  the 
students,  and  in  response  the  Elective  System  has  been  in- 
troduced and  opportunities  afforded  in  the  college  course  for 
early  specialization — many  of  us  think  too  early  specializa- 
tion. It  has  asked  that  education  become  more  practical  and 
in  response  not  only  have  Colleges  and  Universities  multi- 
plied to  an  unparalleled  extent  throughout  our  land,  but  many 
separate  Technical  Schools  have  been  established  as  well  as 
special  departments,  such  as  Architecture,  Agriculture,  En- 
gineering and  the  like,  introduced  into  our  Universities.  In- 


34 


spired  by  the  conviction  that  education  can  be  useful  as  well 
as  ornamental,  not  only  have  the  State  and  National  govern- 
ments made  liberal  grants  for  educational  purposes,  but  well- 
to-do  and  wealthy  individuals  have  contributed  millions  from 
their  private  store  to  the  same  end.  Under  the  influence  of 
this  strong  utilitarian  conviction,  not  only  does  the  State  de- 
mand that  even  the  poorest  of  her  children  shall  acquire  a 
certain  modicum  of  education,  but  the  leaders  in  almost  every 
department  of  human  industry  are  urgent  that  the  young  men 
who  come  to  them  for  employment  shall  have  received  some 
technical  training  for  their  work.  In  a word,  our  practical 
outlook  has  revealed  to  us  that  education  has  a business 
value  and  that  those  who  have  been  privileged  to  enjoy  a 
special  course  of  preparation  for  a given  task  possess  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases  a marked  advantage  over  those  who 
are  without  this  preparation.  And  so  it  is  that  even  busi- 
ness has  been  professionalized  and  education  has  become 
democratic.  It  is  looked  upon  no  longer  as  the  privilege  of 
the  few  but  as  the  necessity  of  the  many. 

Moreover,  in  estimating  the  value  of  this  great  modern 
movement  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that,  notwithstanding  the 
mistakes  that  many  of  its  leaders  have  made,  the  narrowness 
of  their  reforming  zeal  and  the  often  ill-informed  and  some- 
times ill-tempered  attacks  they  have  directed  against  their 
scholastic  antagonists,  the  movement  itself  has  shown  an  ap- 
preciation of  education  and  even  an  enthusiasm  for  it  which 
are  worthy  of  emphatic  praise.  And  this  fact  seems  to  me 
to  merit  special  mention  ; for  it  is  I think  both  noteworthy 
and  encouraging  that  haphazard  empiricism  or  the  picking- 
up  of  what  one  can  or  of  what  one  may  in  the  rough-and- 
tumble  experience  of  the  errand  or  the  office  boy  is  no  longer 
regarded,  except  in  a few  isolated  quarters,  as  the  fittest 
propadeutic  to  the  life  of  the  banker  and  the  financier.  It 
has  long  since  been  recognized  that  proficiency  in  fighting  is 


35 


not  to  be  attained  by  simply  encouraging  the  quarrelsome 
instincts  of  the  breast  or  by  faithfully  utilizing  every  available 
chance  of  hitting  unprotected  heads,  but  rather  by  founding 
‘ ‘ Academies  of  Marine  and  Terrestrial  Warfare/ ’ where 
lighting  is  taught  as  a science  and  the  killing  of  one’s  neigh- 
bor elevated  to  an  art.  In  like  manner,  the  great  Commer- 
cial World,  which  is  certainly  an  advance  upon  the  Military 
World,  has  been  aroused  to  its  own  need  of  education.  It 
has  not  only  seen  the  utility  of  education  for  business  ends, 
but  has  also  recognized,  as  one  of  its  ardent  advocates 
affirms,  that  ‘‘the  educated  classes  always  rule.”  It  asks 
therefore  for  education  because  it  sees  that  education  is  a 
good  and  of  positive  practical  value.  It  asks  not  only  for 
schools  of  engineering  and  mechanics  but  also  for  schools  of 
banking  and  finance  ; and  often  enough  this  demand  proceeds 
from  those  who  have  been  mistaught  in  their  youth  or  who 
have  been  denied  the  advantage  of  any  education  at  all. 

I am  well  aware  of  course  that  a few  phenomenally  success- 
ful business  men  of  great  natural  talent  have  so  expressed 
themselves  as  seemingly  to  disparage  the  utility  of  education 
for  business  ends.  But  these  remarks,  if  generously  inter- 
preted, may,  I believe,  be  fairly  regarded  as  strictures  upon 
certain  kinds  of  education  rather  than  as  a derisive  estimate 
of  education  itself.  At  any  rate  it  is  a fact  of  some  signifi- 
cance that  after  certain  of  these  gentlemen  have  publicly 
declared  the  manifest  unfitness  of  college-bred  youth  for  a 
mercantile  life,  they  have  forthwith  proceeded  to  bestow  most 
liberal  endowments  upon  educational  institutions.  All  of 
which  goes  to  show  that  the  more  strikingly  characteristic 
portion  of  our  modern  world  evinces  an  unmistakable  appre- 
ciation of  education.  It  cannot  be  denied  of  course  that  its 
appreciation  is  one  of  utility.  It  asks,  and  I think  rightly, 
that  education  shall  be  such  as  shall  give  fitting  preparation 
for  the  tasks  of  real  life  and  the  duties  of  active  citizenship. 


36 


It  asks  that  education  shall  have  outlook,  and  take  into 
account  the  actual  world  in  which  the  young  men  of  the  day 
are  to  live  and  labor  ; but  in  making  this  demand  it  displays 
a certain  definite  appreciation  of  education  for  all  that. 

And  this  demand  for  outlook  in  education  is  both  legiti- 
mate and  necessary — legitimate  and  necessary  because  the 
sensorial  world  is  the  inevitable  environment  of  thought  and 
the  natural  sphere  in  which  the  work  of  thought  is  to  be  done. 
To  be  efficient, therefore, our  academic  education  must  always 
keep  life  in  view  and  hold  itself  in  readiness  to  react  to  those 
great  needs  of  life  which  make  themselves  known  from  with- 
out. And  this  is  a most  important  thing  for  all  educators  to 
bear  in  mind  on  their  own  account  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of 
the  students  committed  to  their  care.  It  is  important  on 
their  own  account  because  educators  and  educational  institu- 
tions are  not  altogether  indisposed  to  asceticism.  By  the 
mere  law  of  inertia  teachers  and  professors  are  apt  to  grow 
inordinately  fond  of  their  own  special  pursuits  and  in  the 
recesses  of  their  laboratories  or  the  twilight  of  their  studies 
to  get  out  of  touch  with  the  real  world  and  its  needs.  As 
men  of  thought  they  are  prone  to  retreat  from  the  sensorial 
frontier  of  life  where  crude  and  coarse  material  has  to  be 
handled  and  rough  work  done,  and  bury  themselves  within 
the  inner  fastness  of  reflection  or  research.  Yes,  it  is  even 
here,  in  the  intimate  and  often  exclusive  companionship  of 
their  own  thoughts,  that  they  not  infrequently  develop  a cer- 
tain fine  contempt  for  the  rude  frontier  life  of  the  world  of  sense. 
And  yet  it  is  not  only  a world  of  sense  into  which  they  have 
themselves  been  born,  but  it  is  also  a world  of  sense  with  which 
their  pupils  are  compelled  to  reckon.  The  future  occupations 
of  the  great  majority  of  these  pupils  are  to  be  such  as  will 
demand  upon  their  part  a knowledge  of  this  world  and  an 
aptness  for  its  tasks.  It  will  not  be  possible  for  them  to  flee 
the  one  or  to  ignore  the  other  ; and  therefore  those  who  have 


37 


their  academic  education  in  charge  should  be  men  of  outlook 
into  this  world,  men  who  keep  themselves  in  vital  touch  with 
it,  in  order,  if  for  no  other  reason,  that  when  out  of  this  world 
and  from  the  mouths  of  their  students  the  demand  comes  to 
them  for  bread,  they  may  be  ready  to  furnish  bread  and  not 
serpents,  no  matter  how  interesting  serpents  may  be  to  them- 
selves as  specialists  in  Comparative  Religion  or  Zoology. 

Moreover,  it  is  important  for  the  student’s  sake  to  devel- 
op in  him  outlook  into  life,  because  to  do  so  is  to  connect 
the  labor  of  the  class-room  with  the  demands  of  his  future 
career  and  so  increase  the  chances  both  of  efficiency  and 
interest  in  the  doing  of  the  class-room  work.  It  ought  to  be 
unnecessary  to  remind  intelligent  people  that  work  done  in 
the  dark  and  without  any  faint  perception  of  its  future  use  or 
point  of  application  is  work  done  under  difficulties  and  likely, 
except  in  certain  special  cases,  to  be  shirked.  The  student 
who  loves  knowledge  for  knowledge’  sake  needs  not  perhaps 
the  additional  stimulus  of  the  “ uses  of  knowledge”  either  to 
increase  his  industry  or  to  inflame  his  enthusiasm.  For  such  a 
student  knowledge  is  its  own  reward.  The  hunger  of  his  soul 
is  satisfied  if  he  gets  it ; and,  when  he  gets  it,  it  does  not 
occur  to  him  to  ask  if  this  possession  of  his  may  be  of  service 
to  the  world  at  large.  The  majority  of  young  men  are,  how- 
ever, so  constituted  that  they  naturally  ask  not  only  the  “why” 
but  the  “ wherefore  ” of  things.  They  seek  to  relate  the  tasks 
that  are  required  of  them  to  some  subsequent  life  and  purpose  ; 
and  in  so  doing  they  are  not  necessarily  inspired  by  a base 
utility  but  by  that  ampler  and  noble  impulse  of  intelligence 
which  outgoes  the  selfish  and  self-centred  demand  of  “art 
for  art’s  sake  ” or  “ virtue  for  virtue’s  sake  ” and  asks  that 
whatever  it  be  called  upon  to  do  or  to  acquire  be  foi  life’s 
sake. 

The  tendency  to  associate  work  with  life  purpose  is  there- 
fore natural  to  the  mind  of  man.  Our  young  men  show  it  in 


38 


school  and  college  and  even  long  before  they  have  come  to 
any  clear  understanding  with  themselves  as  to  what  their  own 
specific  life  purpose  is  to  be.  They  show  it  in  that  blind 
groping  for  themselves  and  for  a calling  which  is  so  common 
among  them.  An  important  aim  of  academic  education 
should  therefore  be  to  help  and  encourage  them  in  this  neces- 
sary quest,  for  the  sooner  a man  obtains  a definite  outlook 
into  life  and  sees  the  point  of  application  for  his  studies,  the 
sooner  he  will  begin  to  be  both  interested  and  diligent  in  their 
pursuit.  It  is  indeed  a well  worn  matter  of  remark  among 
us  how  many  college  do-nothings  there  are  who  suddenly 
develop  into  perfect  ‘ ‘ fiends  ’ ’ for  work  the  moment  they 
attend  the  schools  of  Medicine  or  Law.  The  same  is  true  of 
students  in  our  Technical  Schools,  for  I have  seen  it  with  my 
own  eyes.  They  study  hard  because  they  see  the  relation 
that  exists  between  their  studies  and  their  future  work. 

As  a spur  to  diligence  as  well  as  a stimulus  to  interest  an 
outlook  into  life  is  therefore  of  inestimable  value.  To  con- 
nect specific  studies  with  specific  results  is  to  increase  a 
thousand  fold  the  chances  of  their  being  faithfully  pursued. 
No  mere  assurance  of  the  general  utility  of  certain  studies 
for  purposes  of  mental  training  can  ever  produce  the  same 
effects.  Why  ! No  man  enjoys  exercise  for  exercise’  sake, 
and  few  there  are  who  can  for  any  such  reason  be  induced  to 
take  it.  How  few  of  us  there  are,  for  example,  who  can  be 
persuaded  to  take  a walk  every  day  for  the  good  of  our  gen- 
eral health,  and  how  many  there  are  who  having  been 
advised,  with  the  same  object,  to  attend  the  gymnasium, 
have  after  some  spasmodic  efforts  fallen  away.  Connect 
the  walk  with  a definite  purpose,  however,  give  to  the  gym- 
nasium drill  a special  point  by  holding  out  the  hope  of  a 
position  on  the  football  or  the  track  team,  and  instantly  the 
roads  are  crowded  with  zealous  pedestrians  and  the  gymna- 
sium filled  with  aspiring  athletes. 


39 


Such  are  some  of  the  more  observable  results  of  associat- 
ing education  with  a tangible  purpose  ; and  they  prove  the 
legitimacy  of  the  demand  which  the  world  makes  upon  our 
educational  institutions.  That  demand  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  education  shall  keep  life  in  view  and  be  a fitting 
preparation  for  it.  It  is  what  is  called  practical  in  its 
nature,  and  is  urged  most  importunately  by  those  who  are  in 
closest  touch  with  the  sensorial  world,  and  whose  prevailing 
mental  attitude  looks  in  its  direction.  This  attitude  is  one 
which  reveals  the  need  of  adaptation  to  environment  and 
emphasizes  above  everything  else  the  value  of  results.  “ Let 
educators  see  things  as  they  are,”  it  cries,  “ and  let  educa- 
tion itself  have  outlook  towards  the  world  and  give  a special 
training  for  it.” 

In  response  then  to  what  may  be  rightly  regarded  as  the 
legitimate  demand  of  the  world,  we  reply  that  education  must 
undoubtedly  have  outlook  and  be  among  other  things  a pre- 
paration for  life.  But  the  aim  of  education  is  not  complete, 
neither  is  the  task  of  the  educator  fulfilled,  in  simply  heark- 
ening to  the  behests  of  the  world  and  looking  to  its  results. 
There  is  another  and  preeminent  demand,  for  which  all  edu- 
cational systems  must  provide  response  and  which,  if  not 
acceded  to,  leaves  education  woefully  deficient  and  educators 
themselves  unprofitable  servants.  It  is  true  that  education 
should  be  a preparation  for  life,  but  for  what  life  and  whose 
life  we  ask?  We  reply  “ the  life  of  a man.”  “ The  aim  of 
education,”  says  Pestalozzi,  “ is  not  to  turn  out  good  tailors, 
bootmakers,  tradesmen  or  soldiers,  but  to  turn  out  tailors, 
bootmakers,  tradesmen  and  soldiers  who  are  in  the  highest 
meaning  of  the  word  men.”  And  again  he  says,  “ Human 
nature  in  the  whole  range  of  its  dispositions,  powers,  neces- 
sities and  relations  is  not  only  the  point  of  starting  and  centre 
of  education,  but  also  the  last  aim,  the  exclusive  object  of 
its  task.”  Necessary  as  it  is,  therefore , that  young  men  be 


40 


taught  to  react  to  a real  world,  it  is  also  necessary  that  they 
be  taught  to  react  as  men.  Important  as  it  is  that  they  be 
instructed  in  the  science  of  the  world,  it  is  at  the  least  a matter 
of  equal  importance  that  they  be  brought  to  know  themselves 
and  the  inestimable  worth  of  character  and  mind.  Valuable 
as  it  is  that  they  be  trained  to  see  things  as  they  are,  it  is  a 
prime  essential  that  they  also  be  inspired  to  save  society  from 
what  it  is  and  aid  in  the  sublime  and  pressing  task  of  making 
it  all  that  it  ought  to  be.  In  brief,  it  is  an  appreciation  not 
merely  of  the  world  but  of  human  nature  that  we  need  ; for 
after  all  it  is  human  nature  that  is  to  be  educated  and  man- 
hood that  is  to  be  perfected  and  won. 

It  is  evident  therefore  that  in  no  education  worthy  of  the 
name  can  the  factor  of  manhood  be  left  out  of  the  account. 
Above  every  thing  else  it  is  manhood  that  is  demanded  of  us 
as  individual  educators  and  it  is  also  manhood  that  we  are 
required  to  evolve  in  those  who  come  within  the  reach  of  our 
instruction  and  example.  But  this  demand  comes  not  from 
the  peripheral  centre  of  sensation  but  from  that  deeper  centre 
we  have  termed  the  centre  of  thought.  It  comes  not  from 
the  sensorial  world  but  from  that  inner  realm  of  spirit  where 
man  grows  conscious  of  himself  and  of  the  spiritual  functions 
of  which  he  is  possessed.  It  asks  in  the  language  of  Socrates 
that  man  “ know  himself,”  or  in  the  language  of  Fichte  that 
he  “ give  birth  to  himself  as  I,”  or  in  the  language  of  Jesus 
that  he  “ come  to  himself.’ ’ It  asks  too,  as  a further  expli- 
cation of  this  consciousness  of  personality,  that  man  be 
rational  in  thought,  just  in  judgment,  pure  in  heart ; that  he 
be  also  master  of  himself  and  a devout  and  ardent  lover  of 
all  spiritual  Being,  human  and  divine.  In  short,  to  sum  up  the 
substance  of  this  demand,  it  asks  that  man  be  roused  to  a 
sense  of  spiritual  values  and  stirred  to  realize  them  in  char- 
acter and  conduct ; asks  that  in  addition  to  outlook  he  also 
have  insight  and  uplook,  wisdom  and  aspiration. 


4i 


Such  in  fact  is  the  call  that  comes  to  us  not  from  the  face 
of  external  nature  but  from  the  profoundest  depths  of  our 
inmost  souls  ; and  the  attitude  of  the  man  who  hears  the  call 
and  hearkens  to  it  is  one  that  looks  aloft.  His  eye  is  fixed 
not  so  much  on  physical  results  as  on  spiritual  attainments, 
regards  not  so  much  the  outward  show  of  things  as  their 
inward  being  and  significance,  sees  them  not  so  much  in 
time  and  as  they  seem,  as  sub  specie  czternitatis  and  in  the 
light  of  the  ideal. 

Here,  as  you  see,  it  is  the  spiritual  aspect  of  education  that 
confronts  us — that  aspect  of  education  which  brings  man’s 
intellectual  and  moral  nature  into  view  and  takes  account  of 
its  ideal  interests.  And  yet  it  is  the  ideal  element  in  life  and 
education  that  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  the  direct  anti- 
thesis of  what  is  practical  as  well  as  the  deadliest  foe  of  all 
material  success.  It  is  the  ideal  we  are  frequently  told  that 
unfits  a man  for  the  rough  contacts  and  sharp  issues  of  the 
real  world  and  that  keeps  him  forever  dreaming  and  dawdling 
on  in  a purely  visionary  world  of  his  own.  What  have  we 
then  to  say  in  answer  to  this  serious  charge,  for,  if  it  be 
true,  it  not  only  discredits  spiritual  education  as  such,  but 
leaves  us  also  with  a sorry  outlook  into  life  ? 

To  begin  with,  it  cannot  be  denied,  of  course,  that  there 
are  such  people  in  the  world  as  visionaries  ; and  yet  at  the 
same  time  it  ought  to  be  remembered  that  they  are  by  no 
means  confined  to  academic  or  religious  life,  but  are  even  to 
be  found  most  liberally  distributed  both  in  the  practical 
spheres  of  industrial  art  and  science,  and  along  the  hardest 
and  dustiest  roadways  of  every  form  of  business.  The 
father  of  Little  Nell  gambling  away  his  earthly  goods  and  his 
daughter’s  happiness  in  the  hope  of  an  imaginary  fortune  is 
no  uncommon  sight  among  the  so-called  practical  trades  and 
avocations.  But  leaving  these  visionaries  out  of  the  account, 
who  after  all  are  no  more  the  true  exemplars  of  the  ideal 


42 


than  they  are  the  sole  possessors  of  it,  we  are  ready  to  affirm 
and  furnish  proof  that  the  ideal  is  a practical  force  of  vast 
dimensions,  and  that  without  it  the  world’s  work  could  not  be 
done,  neither  would  the  world  itself  be  tolerable  as  an  abid- 
ing place  for  man.  For  think  of  it,  what  is  it  that  makes 
the  United  States  the  glorious  country  that  it  is  for  us  Ameri- 
cans ? Is  it  the  bare  perception  of  things  as  they  are — the 
corruption  in  politics,  the  ostentation  of  wealth,  the  bitter 
wars  of  capital  and  labor,  the  yellowness  of  journalism,  the 
colorlessness  of  the  pulpit  ? What  is  it  that  makes  our  blood 
tingle  when,  as  we  sail  up  New  York  Bay,  we  see  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  flung  out  to  the  breeze  ? Is  it  the  custom-house 
officials  who  meet  us  on  the  boat  and  treat  us  as  thieves  and 
convicts,  or  is  it  their  industrious  assistants  who  subse- 
quently unpack  our  luggage  and  strew  our  modest  wardrobes 
all  about  the  pier  ? Is  it  the  cabman  who  charges  an  exor- 
bitant fare  for  transporting  us  and  our  belongings  to  our 
home,  or  is  it  the  uneven  pavements  on  which  we  stub  our 
toes,  or  the  omnipresent  ash-barrel  which  adorns  the  side- 
walks and  imperils  the  safety  of  our  evening  rambles  ? Is  it 
any  or  all  of  these  “ things-as-they-are  ” which  elicit  our 
admiration  and  make  us  proud  and  glad  to  be  Americans  ? 
No,  I take  it,  it  is  none  of  these  things,  but  the  faith  we  have 
in  the  uncorrupted  heart  of  the  American  Commonwealth 
and  in  its  splendid  ideals  of  political  liberty  and  justice. 
It  is  because  we  believe,  straight  in  the  face  of  much  rebut- 
ting testimony  from  “ things-as-they-are,”  that  in  America 
both  public  and  private  wrongs  will  eventually  be  redressed  ; 
it  is  because  we  believe  that  in  America,  as  nowhere  else  in 
all  the  world,  equality  of  opportunity  will  be  vouchsafed  to 
the  laborer  and  a good  and  solid  chance  extended  him  of 
home  and  happiness  ; it  is  because  we  believe  that  on  this 
blessed  soil  of  ours  the  promise  of  peace  and  freedom  which 
our  forefathers  cherished  will  be  abundantly  redeemed  : it  is 


43 


because  of  these  beliefs  provided  by  our  ideals  that  the 
United  States  is  to  us  the  land  of  all  lands  and  a country 
without  a peer.  It  is  then  the  ideal  after  all  which,  not- 
withstanding the  painful  and  distressing  sight  of  things-as- 
they-are,  succeeds  in  making  our  dear  America  the  glorious 
habitation  of  the  children  of  hope. 

It  is  the  ideal  too  which  is  the  moving  force  in  all  the 
great  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises  of  our  day. 
Even  the  most  sordid  kinds  of  business  are,  in  some  shape 
or  form,  pervaded  and  inspired  by  it.  Nowhere  indeed  do 
we  find  that  men  are  satisfied  with  things  as  they  are.  The 
laborer  is  agitating  for  a juster  wage  and  the  financiers  are 
organizing  ever  vaster  trusts  whose  profits  and  proportions 
shall  transcend  the  old.  The  Diamond  Mines  of  Kimberley 
were  not  enough  for  Cecil  Rhodes  and  he  was  scheming  when 
he  died  to  make  of  all  South  Africa  a British  revenue. 
Surely  it  is  clear  that  the  motor  power  in  all  these  movements 
is  not  the  actual  but  the  ideal,  not  what  is  but  what  men 
dream  of  and  think  both  may  and  ought  to  be  accomplished. 

And  yet  the  doctrine  of  things-as-they-are  has  been 
preached  to  us  as  the  ark  of  our  salvation  from  the  world- 
destroying  floods  of  idealism.  John  Ericsson  has  been  quot- 
ed with  enthusiastic  approval  because,  on  one  occasion,  after 
gazing  fixedly  at  a young  man’s  photograph  and  reckoning  up 
his  chances  of  success,  he  said,  “ The  form  of  the  forehead 
indicates  that  he  will  see  things  as  they  are,  and  not  as  they 
ought  to  be — a circumstance  that  will  remove  obstacles  from 
the  pathway  of  life.”  Now  that  it  is  well  that  men  should 
be  trained  to  use  their  powers  of  observation  and  to  face 
facts  and  to  grasp  in  any  emergency  the  actual  condition 
and  relations  of  things  no  man  in  his  senses  will  deny.  It  is 
well  and  necessary  that  we  should  not  be  betrayed  into  run- 
ning away  from  facts  but  compelled  on  the  contrary  to  see 
them  as  they  are.  It  is  well  and  necessary  that  we  should 


44 


be  forced  to  see  the  overmastering  greed  for  gold  and  power  ; 
forced  to  see  the  saddening  lack  of  a disinterested  patriot- 
ism ; forced  to  see  the  diminution  of  zeal  and  of  respect  for 
the  great  principles  of  liberty  and  justice  which  were  the 
cradle  of  our  great  Republic  : forced  to  see  the  almost  indis- 
tinguishable presence  of  a genuinely  high  code  of  morals  in 
politics  and  business  ; forced  to  see  the  widespread  contempt 
for  any  form  of  education  which  cannot  be  shown  to  have  a 
large  money  value  ; forced  to  see  the  well-nigh  total  loss  of 
faith  in  the  Ethics  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a workable  theory  of 
life  ; forced  to  see  all  these  and  other  facts  of  a similar  na- 
ture which  face  us  in  the  present  world.  But  to  what  end  ? 
Are  we  to  observe  these  facts  simply  in  order  that  we  may 
cunningly  adapt  ourselves  to  our  environment  and  by  the  use 
of  skill  and  the  exercise  of  nerve  promote  and  realize  such 
combinations  and  adjustments  of  existing  facts  as  shall  re- 
dound to  our  material  survival  and  success  ? Is  it  for  this 
that  our  powers  of  observation  are  to  be  cultivated  ? One  is 
almost  led  to  believe  that  this  is  what  is  meant  by  certain 
apostles  of  commercial  education  when  they  annex  to  their 
demand  that  men  shall  be  trained  to  see  things  as  they  are 
the  yet  further  requirement  44  and  not  as  they  ought  to  be.” 
One  is  almost  compelled  to  conclude  that  these  apostles  of 
44  things-as-they-are  ” have  arrived  at  the  assured  conviction 
that  the  ideal  or  what-ought-to-be  has  no  legitimate  place  in 
practical  affairs. 

For  one,  however,  who  has  any  moral  nature  left  and  who 
means,  at  whatever  cost,  to  be  and  remain  a man,  what  is 
the  great  advantage  of  seeing  such  facts  as  those  to  which  I 
have  but  now  alluded  unless  at  the  same  time  and  accom- 
panying the  perception  of  4 4 what  is  ’ ’ there  is  also  the  vision 
of  44  what  ought  to  be.”  To  see  such  facts-as-they-are  and 
yet  be  utterly  devoid  of  any  hope  of  bettering  them  is  to 
relapse  into  the  passive  acquiescence  of  the  slave  of  circum- 


45 

stance  or  else  be  goaded  into  the  maddening  hopelessness  of 
the  creature  of  despair. 

But,  as  a matter  of  fact — since  facts  are  called  for  and 
esteemed — men  do  not  rest  content  with  things  as  they  are. 
And  the  reason  that  they  fail  to  do  so  is  because  they  see  or 
think  they  see  “ what  ought  to  be.”  It  is  the  ideal  or  the 
vision  of  “what-ought-to-be”  which  gives  them  the  courage  to 
assail  the  world  of  fact  and  transform  it  into  something  better 
than  it  is.  Because  of  the  ideal  that  spurred  them  on,  men 
have  been  led  to  reclaim  the  desolate  spots  of  earth  from 
swamp  or  drought  and  make  them  blossom  as  the  garden  of 
the  Lord.  Because  of  the  ideal  that  lightened  their  path  and 
warmed  their  heart,  they  have  been  helped  to  root  out  or 
diminish  existing  disease  and  replace  the  facts  of  human 
ignorance  and  folly  with  a new-born  knowledge  and  wisdom. 
By  the  power  of  the  ideal  marvellous  discoveries  have  been 
made  and  inventions  perfected,  and  in  its  strength  have  novel 
sciences  been  brought  to  light  and  gigantic  industries  devel- 
oped. In  truth  the  words  Engineering,  Physics,  Commerce 
are  as  truly  the  symbols  of  an  ideal  life  and  interest  as  the 
words  Church  and  State,  or  Humanity  and  Soul.  It  is  not 
the  bare,  crude  facts  alone  at  which  the  engineer  or  merchant 
gazes.  He  also  sees  and  prizes  most  of  all  the  new  and  bet- 
ter things  he  hopes  to  elicit  from  these  facts — the  improved 
roadways  and  bridges  and  buildings,  cheaper  foodstuffs  and 
greater  facilities  of  trade.  In  every  case  it  is  not  the  mere 
perception  of  things  as  they  are  which  furnishes  the  spur  to 
industry  and  the  motive  power  of  endeavor  but  rather  the 
vision  of  what  ought  to  be — the  dream  of  the  ideal. 

Hence  it  is  evident  that  it  is  by  the  perception  of  what 
ought  to  be  and  the  effort  to  realize  it  that  progress  in  any 
and  every  direction  is  achieved.  The  ideal  is  not  only  the 
motive  power  of  human  effort  but  also  the  indispensable 
instrument  of  individual  and  social  betterment.  In  other 


46 


words,  by  the  power  of  the  ideals  of  the  mind  is  not  only  the 
face  of  the  earth  transformed  and  made  more  habitable  for  man, 
but  society  itself  undergoes  changes  and  developments  which 
show  improvement.  And  what  does  this  mean  but  that  the 
ideal  has  power  over  the  environment,  and  that  by  the  will  of 
the  ideal  is  the  environment  transformed.  The  environment  is 
not  then  a fixed  quantity,  a given  sum  of  unalterable  facts. 
It  is  amenable  to  influence,  it  undergoes  alterations,  it  suffers 
changes  and  transfigurations  ; and  one  of  the  most  potent  of 
forces  in  educing  these  results  is  the  ideal  of  the  mind — 
the  insight  and  the  uplook  of  the  soul  which  come  not  from 
without  but  from  within. 

Here  then  is  another  important  fact  which  those  who  are 
forever  talking  to  us  of  the  omnipotence  of  the  environment 
and  of  the  need  we  are  under  of  observing  it  and  conforming 
ourselves  to  it  should  carefully  consider.  For  surely,  if  it  is 
necessary  that  we  should  see  things  as  they  are  in  order  that 
we  may  react  to  the  real  world,  it  is  even  more  necessary, 
since  the  real  world  is  subject  to  the  influence  of  the  ideal 
and  shows  itself  obedient  to  its  demands,  that  we  should  also 
be  ready  to  react  to  the  ideal  and  carry  its  insights  and  its 
aspirations  into  the  outward  environments  of  society  and 
sense. 

Consider,  for  example,  by  what  chief  force  society  has  been 
transmuted  from  the  duelling  community  it  was  a century  or 
more  ago  into  its  comparatively  civilized  condition  of  today. 
Time  was,  as  we  know,  when  individual  survival  among  gentle- 
men depended  largely  upon  the  sword , very  much  as  national 
survival  is  in  great  measure  dependent  upon  it  now.  The 
gentleman  who  was  not  a crack  shot  or  an  adept  at  fence  could 
not  count  upon  preserving  his  life  against  a skillful  and  re- 
vengeful adversary.  The  expert  duellist  might  be  a libertine 
or  a brute,  and  his  antagonist  the  very  embodiment  of  virtue  ; 
and  yet,  in  the  environment  of  the  sword,  the  fittest  in  its  use 


47 


was  certain,  saving  accident,  to  survive.  How  then  have 
men  outgrown  the  duel  and  ceased  to  be  a sword-loving  com- 
munity ? Simply  by  reacting  to  the  real  world  of  swords  and 
and  pistols  and  adapting  themselves  to  its  demands  ? Have 
they  at  last  obtained  immunity  from  murderous  brawls  and 
quarrels  by  having  first  converted  themselves  into  such  danger- 
ous opponents  that  no  man  dared  attack  or  challenge  them  ? 
No,  far  from  it ; but  by  listening  to  the  voice  of  the  ideal 
which  declared  from  within  the  depths  of  the  human  spirit 
that  there  were  better  and  juster  methods  of  settling  disputes 
and  adjusting  differences  than  that  of  having  recourse  to  the 
barbarous  expedient  of  jeopardizing  and  taking  life.  Yes,  it 
was  by  the  force  of  the  ideal,  emerging  in  human  minds  and 
finding  for  itself  as  time  went  on  a more  courageous  and 
complete  expression,  that  the  public  sentiment  of  the  com- 
munity which  once  sustained  the  duel  was  slowly  altered  into 
open  condemnation  of  it.  And  so  it  came  about  that  a new 
social  environment  was  formed  in  which  the  fittest  men  were 
no  longer  the  dead  shots  or  the  brilliant  masters  of  fence,  but 
the  possessors  of  true  spiritual  manhood. 

Thus  is  it  evident  that  the  social  environment  is  not  an 
unalterable  world  which  fatefully  decides  the  destiny  of  man, 
but  one  which  has  been  constantly  transformed  by  the  invad- 
ing and  triumphant  power  of  ideals.  So  too  is  it  proved  that 
the  ideal  is  no  mere  impotent  and  illusory  dream,  but  both  a 
practical  and  a progressive  factor  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
By  showing  men  what  ought  to  be,  it  gives  them  strength  and 
inspiration  to  change  the  social  world  and  make  it  even  better 
than  it  is  ; for  the  message  and  mandate  of  the  ideal  is  not 
“ adapt  yourselves  to  the  environment  that  you  may  gather  to 
yourselves  much  goods  and  live  at  ease,”  but “ transform  the 
environment  that  it  may  in  turn  sustain  and  develop  a nobler 
race  of  men.”  It  is  this  that  the  ideal  demands,  and  it  is 
this  the  ideal  has  done. 


48 


Furthermore,  it  must  be  now  abundantly  clear  that  by  dis- 
closing to  man  both  what  he  is  and  what  he  ought  to  be  the 
ideal  provides  not  merely  a motor  force  of  great  practical 
value  as  well  as  the  necessary  incentive  to  progress,  but  also 
furnishes  the  guide  and  goal  of  human  effort.  By  giving 
men  an  insight  into  their  own  spiritual  nature  and  a vision  of 
its  possible  attainments  the  ideal  fixes  and  reveals  the  end 
and  aim  of  human  existence.  The  living  of  the  most  com- 
plete and  perfect  life,  this  is  the  purpose  disclosed  by  the 
ideal  ; or,  as  Froebel  puts  it,  “ a man’s  highest  duty  is  to  live 
out  the  law  of  his  life  here  on  earth  by  unceasing  outward 
and  upward  activity,  to  develop  and  promote  the  realization 
of  God’s  idea  in  humanity.” 

The  aim  of  all  academic  education  should  therefore  be  to 
prepare  men  for  the  fulfillment  of  this  lofty  task.  Every 
branch  of  study  that  is  useful  to  this  end  is  of  value.  Nothing 
in  fact  which  contributes  to  the  education  of  a man,  be  it 
knowledge  of  nature  on  the  one  hand  or  knowledge  of  him- 
self on  the  other,  is  without  its  utility.  Insight  and  uplook 
are  certainly  as  useful  in  the  development  of  manhood  as 
outlook.  Hence  it  is  palpable  that  the  ideal  is  no  more  the 
enemy  of  the  principle  of  utility  than  it  is  the  foe  of  what  is 
practical.  Indeed  the  ideal  expressly  demands  of  all  educa- 
tion that  the  practical  application  of  everything  that  is  taught 
to  the  making  of  a man  shall  be  both  kept  in  view  and  ren- 
dered evident. 

To  speak  then  of  certain  studies  which  acquaint  man  with 
nature  and  the  external  world  as  utilitarian  and  certain  other 
studies  which  acquaint  him  with  himself  as  non-utilitarian  or 
useless  is  both  schismatic  and  untrue.  Not  only  is  it  impos- 
sible to  draw  any  hard  and  fast  line  between  studies  which  train 
the  mind  and  studies  which  fit  for  life,  but  culture  is  as  truly 
useful  in  the  development  of  manhood  as  is  natural  science. 
We  have  then  no  quarrel  with  those  who  advocate  the  princi- 


49 


pie  of  utility  in  education.  Our  only  contention  is  that  the 
conception  of  utility  which  educators  entertain  should  be 
broad  enough  and  high  enough  to  cover  mind  as  well  as  busi- 
ness and  man  as  well  as  money.  The  real  fault  with  our 
modern  apostles  of  utility  is  not  that  they  have  preached 
utility,  but  that  they  have  preached  a narrow  and  oftentimes 
a sordid  notion  of  it.  In  their  estimate  of  what  was  of  use 
in  academic  education  they  seem  to  have  been  almost  exclu- 
sively guided  by  the  principle  of  worldly  and  material  success. 
The  education  that  contributed  directly  to  these  palpable 
results  they  have  described  as  utilitarian,  whereas  the  educa- 
tion that  could  not  be  immediately  utilized  for  business  ends 
they  have  denominated  non-utilitarian  or  useless.  But  surely 
there  must  be  some  use  in  being  a man  as  well  as  in  becom- 
ing a millionaire,  and  also  some  utility  in  having  taste  and 
conscience  and  a trained  intelligence  as  well  as  in  owning  a 
steam-yacht  or  a state  legislature.  So  much  at  the  least  may, 
without  undue  partisanship  for  the  things  of  the  mind  or  any 
offensive  dogmatism  in  their  behalf,  be  fairly  affirmed. 

Nevertheless  there  runs  through  the  phaseology  of  much 
that  has  of  late  years  been  said  and  written  upon  the  subject 
of  education  a certain  subtle  sort  of  denial  of  these  apparently 
self-evident  propositions.  The  mental  attitude  in  education 
has  been  so  persistently  one  of  outlook  towards  the  world 
that  nothing  in  the  way  of  study  or  research  which  did  not 
promise  near  and  visible  results  has  seemed  to  wear  the 
appearance  of  utility.  Men  have  not  simply  been  told  to  look 
without,  which  was  quite  proper,  but  they  have  in  addition 
been  adjured,  by  all  that  is  sane  and  practical,  not  to  look 
within.  Introspection  they  have  been  informed  is  purely 
morbid  in  its  character  and  renders  men  unfit  to  see  things 
as  they  are  and  healthily  react  to  nature  and  the  social  world. 
And  so  in  obedience  to  these  exhortations  men  have  gazed  so 
long  and  fixedly  at  the  world  and  turned  their  backs  so  reso- 


5° 


lutely  upon  their  own  spiritual  being  that  they  have  not  merely 
come  to  see  no  use  in  any  form  of  education  which  does  not 
promote  success  in  the  world  as  it  is,  but  they  have  also 
dimmed  or  lost  that  insight  into  the  needs  of  the  spirit  and 
that  uplook  towards  the  ideal  which  are  essential  to  any 
proper  education  of  mankind  or  any  sure  and  lasting  progress 
of  society.  Transfixed  in  the  attitude  of  outlook  the  demand 
upon  our  educational  institutions  has  been  that  they  shall  fur- 
nish Chemists,  Architects,  Engineers.  The  further  demand 
which  Pestalozzi  made  that  the  chemists,  architects  and  engi- 
neers shall  be  “ in  the  highest  meaning  of  the  word  men/’  is 
seldom  heard. 

Thus  has  there  come  about,  through  this  one-sided  attitude 
of  outlook  and  a too  exclusive  consideration  of  the  world  a more 
or  less  open  disregard  of  man.  We  see  it  both  in  what  men 
ask  of  their  fellows  and  in  the  way  they  treat  them.  It  is  in 
fact  so  evident  in  college  life  that  it  has  become  a matter  of 
satirical  comment  in  the  press.  Not  very  long  ago  Life  had 
an  article  in  which  a College  President,  after  having  insulted 
one  of  his  Faculty  for  not  having  sufficiently  advertised  the 
college  in  the  monthly  magazines,  is  told  by  his  clerk  that  the 
students  of  the  new  Freshman  class  are  outside  waiting  to 
pay  their  respects.  At  such  a preposterous  request  as  this 
the  President  is  represented  as  “ laughing  strenuously.” 
“ What  nerve  !”  he  exclaimed.  “ Here  I am  writing  a book, 
making  arrangements  for  a lecture  tour,  dictating  at  least 
eighteen  magazine  articles,  to  say  nothing  of  drumming  up 
the  millionaire  trade  from  Maine  to  California,  and  these  mere 
students  come  to  bother  me.  Bah  ! Tell  ’em  I’m  not  at 
home.”  Here  it  is.  In  the  passion  for  buildings  and  equip- 
ments we  are  not  at  home  to  the  students  ; in  the  overmas- 
tering desire  for  tangible  results  we  ignore  or  forget  the  living 
men. 

Surely  then  in  such  a situation  as  this  it  is  not  out  of  place 


to  recall  those  memorable  words,  “ Seest  thou  these  great 
buildings  ? There  shall  not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another 
that  shall  not  be  thrown  down.”  Neither  is  it  beside  the 
mark  to  bear  in  mind  those  other  words,  “ For  what  is  a 
man  profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his 
own  soul, or  what  shall  a man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?” 
For  after  all  what  we  need  above  everything  else  in  education, 
and  in  addition  to  our  enthusiasm  for  specific  studies  and  for 
material  results,  is  a deep  and  all-pervading  enthusiasm  for 
humanity ; that  enthusiasm  which  comes  of  insight  into  the 
nature  of  the  mind  and  uplook  into  its  spiritual  possibilities. 

We  need  to  react  to  the  real  world.  Yes,  but  we  also 
need  to  react  to  the  ideal,  and  to  react  to  both  the  real  world 
and  the  ideal  as  men  ; for  we  are  not  here  upon  this  earth 
simply  to  perform  the  slick  and  accommodating  trick  of  con- 
forming ourselves  to  the  environment,  but  to  achieve  the 
nobler  task  of  carrying  the  ideals  of  the  spirit  into  the  world 
of  sensible  reality  and  transforming  it  into  something  better 
than  it  is.  It  is  manhood,  therefore,  that  is  the  world’s  great 
need  and  it  is  manhood  we  are  called  upon,  as  men,  to  edu- 
cate. For  the  aim  of  education  is  to  prepare  a man  to  play 
a man’s  part  in  a man’s  world,  and  to  play  it  with  such  effi- 
ciency and  character  that  manhood  shall  be  elevated  in  the 
task  and  society  brought  nearer  to  the  ideal  of  a perfect  man 
in  a perfect  state — the  Republic  of  God. 


AWARDS  OF  PRIZES,  1903 

Intercollegiate  Prizes 


The  following  are  the  awards  made  by  the  Association  for  Promot- 
ing the  Interests  of  Church  Schools,  Colleges  and  Seminaries  in  1903. 
The  examinations  are  open  to  the  University  of  the  South,  Trinity, 
Kenyon,  St.  Stephen’s,  St.  John’s  and  Hobart,  and  all  but  one  of 
these  colleges  competed  this  year.  The  examiners  are  professors  in 
Columbia  University. 


Senior  Prizes  in  English 

Arthur  Frank  Heussler,  Hobart,  95%  %,  . First  Prize,  $200 

George  Farrand  Taylor,  Hobart,  85  %,  Second  Prize,  $100 


Sopho?nore  Prizes  in  English 

Henry  Bartlett  VanHoesen,  Hobart,  91%%,  First  Prize,  $100 
Thomas  Luther  Wilder,  Hobart,  85%,  . Second  Prize,  $50 

Herman  Ferdinand  Schnirel,  Plobart,  81%  %,  Honorable  Mention 


Senior  Prizes  in  Greek 

Henry  Curtis  Whedon,  Hobart,  80%,  . First  Prize,  $ 100 

Sophomore  Prizes  in  Greek 

Henry  Bartlett  VanLIoesen,  Hobart,  80%,  First  Prize,  $100 


Senior  Prizes  in  Latin 

Ralph  Claude  Willard,  Hobart,  86%%, 
Arthur  Frank  Heussler,  Hobart,  80%%, 


First  Prize,  $100 
Second  Prize,  $50 


Sophomore  Prizes  in  Mathematics 

Earll  Leslie  Lord,  Hobart,  80%,  . . First  Prize,  $100 


Senior  Prizes  in  Physics 

Stanley  Rich,  Hobart,  95%,  . . First  Prize,  $100 

Harry  Sylvester  Simmons,  Hobart,  86%,  Second  Prize,  $50 


S3 


Sophomore  Prizes  in  Physics 
Guy  Hinman  Catlin,  Hobart,  85% 


First  Prize,  $100 


College  Prizes 


Clarence  A.  Seward  Prize  Scholarship , $200,  1903-4 
Henry  Curtis  Whedon,  Geneva. 

Tho7tipson  English  Prize  Scholarship , $100,  1903-4 
Arthur  Frank  Heussler,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

The  Charles  H.  Prize  Scholarship  hi  English,  $ 80 , 1903-4 

Maurice  Alonzo  Leffingwell,  Watertown,  N.  Y. 
Guy  Emery  Shipler,  Clyde,  N.  Y.,  Alternate. 


White  Essay  Prizes 
Fred  Grandy  Budlong,  Fairmont,  Minn., 


First  Prize, $20 


White  Rhetorical  Prize,  $30 

George  William  Gray,  Dover,  N.  H. 

William  Carl  Compton,  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  Honorable  Mention 


Cobb  English  Literature  Pidzes 


George  William  Gray,  Dover,  N.  H., 
Glenn  Max  Lee,  Montour  Falls,  N.  Y., 


First  Prize,  $20 
Second  Prize,  $10 


Sutherland  Prizes 

Charles  Ledyard  Atwater,  Baltimore,  Md.,  Philosophy  Prize,  $25 
Stanley  Rich,  Chicago,  111.,  . . Physics  Prize,  $25 

Ralph  Claude  Willard,  Watertown,  N.  Y.,  Honorable  Mention 
Herbert  Alfred  Bradford,  Gasport,  N.  Y.,  Classics  Prize,  $25 


54 

Bachman  Classical  Prize,  $jo 
Ralph  Claude  Willard,  Watertown,  N.  Y. 


Freshman  Declamation  Prizes 

Honors  Chandler  Connette,  Syracuse,  N.  Y., 
James  Gilmer  Buskey,  Norfolk,  Va., 


First  Prize,  $10 
Second  Prize,  $5 


DEGREES,  *903 


Degrees  in  Course 
B.A. 

Cum  laude : Honors  in  Greek  and  English, 

Harry  Sylvester  Simmons,  Owego,  N.  Y. 

Cum  laude:  Honors  in  Greek  and  English, 

Henry  Delos  Warren,  Middleport,  N.  Y. 

Honorable  Mention  in  German, 

S.  Edwin  Boardman,  Moravia,  N.  Y. 

Honorable  Mention  in  English  and  History, 

William  Norman  Irish,  Utica,  N.  Y. 

B.A. 

Charles  Ledyard  Atwater,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Ralph  Wright  Hawley,  Moravia,  N.  Y. 

Oliver  Kingman,  Owego,  N.  Y. 

Ph.B. 

Jesse  Asa  Ryan,  Lock  Haven,  Pa. 

B.L. 

Allen  Jackson  Cuming,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Honorary  Degrees 
S.T.D. 

Rev.  Amos  Skeele,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  J.  Selden  Spencer,  Tarrytown,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  Loring  W.  Batten,  Ph.D.,  St.  Mark’s  Church,  New  York. 

L.H.D. 

President  Isaac  Sharpless,  LL.D.,  Haverford  College. 


